Meta Lays off 11,000; Disney+ Hits 164 Million Subscribers; Twitter Rolls Out Grey Checkmark & “Official”; Zoom Adds Email & Calendar Features

Meta had announced a big layoff, and they weren’t kidding. Today, in a message to employees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced it would be a little north of 11,000, or 13% of the workforce. Reuters reports that Zuck took responsibility for figuring revenue growth that wasn’t as high as he expected. Meta will pay 16 weeks of base pay and two additional years for every year of service, all remaining paid time off, plus shares that would vest by November 15th, and healthcare for 6 months. Prior to the layoff, Meta had over 87,000 employees.

Disney Plus picked up 12 million new subscribers in the 3rd quarter, hitting over 164 million worldwide…with Hulu and ESPN, they hit over 235 million. According to techcrunch.com, they passed up Netflix for a 2nd time, with Netflix reaching 223 million subscribers. They did show an operating loss, but never fear, a price increase they just dropped will help with that. Yeah…I’ll pay it. 

The blue checkmark is getting a cousin…as it turns out, Twitter has started using a gray checkmark and an ‘Official’ designation. Several high profile accounts that are actually verified…like the New York Times…got the badge and verification today. 9to5mac.com says the check and designation appear on both the profile page and next to the name of the account in the timeline.  The ‘Official’ label will include “government accounts, commercial companies, business partners, major media outlets, publishers and some public figures.” Twitter hasn’t said how anyone else might apply. Twitter Blue accounts will keep the blue checkmark. 

Zoom is adding email and calendar features, in the hope of taking on other workspace platforms. According to engadget.com, Zoom feels they have a shot at drawing users away from Microsoft with 365 and Google’s Workspace in areas besides video conferences and chats. I would say good luck with that! It seems pretty unlikely that companies will change over their email systems from long established Microsoft or Google to go with an upstart that just took off big time during the pandemic. 

I’m Clark Reid, and you’re technified for now. 

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. 

Meta Plans Layoffs; iPhone 14 Pro Shortage; Samsung Galaxy S23 Launch Rumors; Starlink To Throttle Big Data Users

Meta seems to be using the big Twitter layoff as cover…they are now planning major job cuts that could happen as soon as the day after Election Day. The layoff numbers are expected to be in the thousands. According to theverge.com, Meta had some 87,000 employees as the end of September. CEO Mark Zuckerberg put a hiring freeze in place at that time, and was reported as saying in an internal Q&A session that “there are probably a bunch of people at the company who shouldn’t be here.” Facebook has more active users than ever before, but investors are skittery about the big dollars Zuck is dropping on his Metaverse vision. The company has dropped $9.4 billion on the Metaverse project this year, and burned through a similar amount last year. Meta’s virtual reality division lost $3.7 billion this past quarter. The stock is now at its lowest level since 2016. 

With China locking down a big Foxconn plant for a week due to COVID, Apple is warning that iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max models may be in shorter supply than expected. Macrumors.com reports that iPhone production could be down some 30% from normal due to the lockdown. Apple has upped production in India to make up some of the slack, but says they can’t fully replace the capacity.  Expect longer wait times if you are trying to upgrade to a 14 Pro or Pro Max. 

Normally after the first of the year, we start looking for Samsung to roll out its latest and greatest phones. 9to5google.com says we should expect the Galaxy S23 handsets to bow sometime around the 1st week of February…although some Samsung watchers say it could be as late as the 17th. Right now, it looks like at least 75% of Galaxy S23 phones will use Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chips. Earlier this year, it appeared Samsung would be using more Exynos chips, but that may not be the case. Apparently, Samsung will hold an in-person event in San Francisco…their first in-person event since 2020. 

After jacking up prices this spring, now Starlink is putting in a data cap on heavy users. According to engadget.com, it’s 1TB a month. If you exceed the cap, you’ll get dropped back from ‘priority access’ to ‘basic access’ the rest of the month. Some may encounter upload speeds as slow as 1 Mbps! The data cap is similar to cable providers, although they normally will just charge you gobs of money for continuing over the limit. Starlink is going to do that, too…but at 25 cents per gig of data for priority, you won’t want to get hit with that kind of fees. Premium/Maritime users will have 1 TB and 5 TB caps, but exceeding those will set them back $2 for every priority Gig after that. One user noted it might be cheaper to buy a complete second system!

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

Twitter Job Cuts; Foxconn COVID Lockdown; Zillow Beats Expectations; Gmail Will Track Your Packages

Last report, I joked that lately the Week in Elon Musk could be turned to the day since he bought Twitter. In that regard, he hasn’t disappointed. Now, Reuters reports that Musk plans to cut about 3700 jobs there, or about half the head count. A couple weeks ago, he had threatened to cut 75%, but this was trimmed back to 25% a couple days later. Now, it’s grown again. Some will likely quit, adding to this number, as Elon is demanding everyone come into the office again…after Twitter announced earlier that they could work from home permanently. It’s worth noting that so far, employees have not heard a single thing from Musk…having to rely on his Tweets, the news, and private chats to try to figure out what’s going on. 

China continues to use draconian lockdowns to try to tamp down COVID. Now, they have imposed a 7 day lockdown on a huge Foxconn plant. According to appleinsider.com, substantial numbers of employees have been fleeing the area to avoid being trapped in the so-called ‘closed loop.’ Apparently food and medical supplies have been running low. Foxconn has increased daily bonuses from 100 yuan a day to 400 to try to stem the exodus. They say the lockdown will cut production of Apple products by 30%…but they intend to make up most of that at other plants. 

In spite of higher interest putting the brakes on home sales, Zillow Group managed to beat its 3rd quarter earnings. Geekwire.com says the real estate giant reported 3rd quarter revenue of $483 million, beating the expectation of $456 million. Their total revenue was down 12%, though, as mortgage rates rose past 7%. Zillow had shuttered their home flipping business last year and cut about 25% of their workforce then. As they are looking at the housing market to ‘remain challenged,’ they have cut another 550 employees…about 18% of the workforce there. 

The holiday season is upon us, and even more packages will be on the way. Now, Google is updating the Gmail app with simple package tracking. Engadget.com reports that if the order email has a supported tracking number, you will see the shipping status at the top of the message. The opt-in feature should be available in a couple weeks. Apple Mail has had a similar feature for several years, where you could tap on an arrow to the right of the tracking number, and a box pops up with the tracking details. 

Twitter Paywalled Videos; Sony PlayStation VR2, Google Street View App Goes Away; Amazon Out of Trillion Dollar Club

We used to do a feature called ‘The Week in Elon Musk.’ With his Twitter purchase, it has become the day in Elon Musk. Now, gizmodo.com reports that Twitter is considering a ‘paywalled video’ feature that would allow users to charge money for access to videos…which most Twitter watchers think would be immediately flooded with porn. Apparently, the prices would be preset by Twitter….at $1, $2, $5, or $10. Twitter would take a cut of the money, using Stripe. It sounds like a Twitter version of Only Fans! Right now, it’s unclear if this idea was already in the works, or is one of Musk’s ideas to monetize Twitter. Musk is apparently still working on a process to bring banned accounts back to Twitter, too. While he is pitching it as an online town square, it sounds a bit more like a town back alley in these cases. 

Sony will roll out the PlayStation VR2 headset on February 22nd. According to theverge.com, it will set you back $549.99. That will include Sense controllers and stereo headphones, however a Sense controller charging station is priced separately at $49.99…so you are really going to be out $600! Preorders are opening on November 15th, and limited to through the PlayStation online store in a lot of markets, including the US, UK, France, and Germany. Games…including “Horizon Call of the Mountain,’ will also be open for preorder this month. The new headset has an OLED screen, 110 degree field of view, and has 4 cams built into the display. Oh…and original PlayStation VR games are not compatible with it, either. 

Google is pulling the standalone Street View app in the next few weeks from both Android and iOS. 9to5google.com says they will also kill off support for the app by next March. The street view with 360 degree views will still be available in Google Maps. Just a couple weeks ago, Google teased that they are going to make the Maps app more immersive with the addition of 3D aerial views and details for some spots like weather and traffic. 

Shares of online giant Amazon dropped 5.9% Tuesday, falling for the 5th straight day. Amazon’s market cap is now below a trillion dollars. According to cnbc.com, the stock price is now down to the level of April 2020. This is all mainly due to the company’s 4th quarter forecast…Amazon is predicting the holiday quarter will grow by 2% to 8%, which is noticeably lower than analysts’ estimates. Amazon now has the dubious honor of being the 2nd worst performer in the Big Tech stock group…down 42%…but worst stock Meta has dropped 72%, and Meta has warned that 4th quarter revenue will likely decline for a third straight period. 

Amazon Prime Gets Full Music Catalog; New Google Shopping Features; Tesla Still Needs TX Gigafactory Boss; TikTok Creators Now See When You Favorite Their Video

Amazon has added a nice new benefit to Amazon Prime. While you used to have about 2 million songs to choose from, the online giant now has a full music catalog of over 100 million songs. Techcrunch.com notes that it remains to be seen if this will pull subscribers away from Apple Music or Spotify, but it certainly puts them in a place to be able to do that. In addition to bulking up the music catalog, Amazon Prime will now make most of their top podcasts available without ads. You can access the expanded music catalog through the main Amazon Music app. The added music is a nice bonus that they hope will soften the blow of increasing the annual fee for Prime from $119 to $139. 

Just in time for the holidays…of course…Google has bowed some new shopping features that make it easier to find deals directly from your search results. Theverge.com reports that any products with a coupon available will now have a new ‘Special Offer’ badge in the top left corner of the thumbnail. Besides digitally clippable coupons in Search, google is introducing a way to compare deals side by side on mobile. That feature will be live later this month. 

Tesla has had great plans for the new Gigafactory in Texas…a plant that will ultimately employ some 10,000 workers. Now, all they need is a leader…usually known as a plant director. Electrek.co says that the plant is cranking out vehicles (although Tesla hasn’t specified numbers), but after a year and a half remains leaderless. It is worth noting that they do have a director of manufacturing. Jason Shawhan took that role last year, moving over from a Ford plant in Kansas City. He had been assistant plant manager at that facility for about 20 years. 

No lurking for you, TikToker. While you used to be able to favorite a video anonymously, with the creator only able to see the total count…the platform now enables them to see who you are. According to mashable.com, most other platforms…like  Twitter’s Bookmarks and Instagram’s Saved, don’t let the creators see who has favorited their videos. While creators will hail the new feature, there are a lot of lurkers on TikTok and really all platforms who prefer to remain anonymous. This feature follows one TikTok released in June that lets users see who viewed their profile.