Twitter has officially changed its logo to ‘X’ | TechCrunch

July 25, 2023July 24, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Twitter has removed the iconic bird logo and adopted ‘X’ as its official logo. This move comes after Elon Musk announced the change over the weekend. The change is already live on the website.

Notably, Musk tweeted that x.com now also redirects to twitter.com. In the post, Musk also called this an “interim” logo, so we might see another logo change in the future.

The social network might not stop at just replacing the logo. Musk said the company will eventually “bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”

Late Sunday, Musk changed his profile picture to the new Twitter logo. Twitter’s official account @Twitter has also changed its name and display picture to the new X logo.

Google Salary Data Leak Shows Employee Compensation in 2022 | Entrepreneur

July 24, 2023July 23, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tech jobs have long been in the top ranks among the highest-paying industries, but some companies really shell out the dough for their engineers.

In 2022, the median total compensation for Google employees was $279,802, according to leaked internal data from the company reviewed by Business Insider. Among the highest-paying positions at Google, software engineers led the pack with a maximum base salary of $718,000 last year.

No, Threads didn’t rate limit like Twitter. Here’s what Meta did. | Mashable

July 21, 2023July 19, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

It seemed like exactly the type of juicy hypocrisy that the internet lives for.

On Monday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced that in order to tackle the spam problem on its new Twitter competitor, Threads, the company was going to introduce tighter rate limits on the platform.

Sounds familiar? That’s because rate limits were one of the controversial decisions implemented by Elon Musk on Twitter in early July that resulted in massive backlash against the platform. Users were finding themselves blocked from seeing content on Twitter due to daily rate limiting, after viewing a certain number of tweets.

But, as it turns out, no, Threads did not deploy the same controversial rate limits on its platform that Twitter did. Threads instead strengthened the same type of rate limits present on most all social media platforms, limits that even Twitter used long before Musk even acquired the company.

Tesla profits climb despite price cuts | CNN Business

July 20, 2023July 19, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Tesla reported a much bigger-than-expected increase in profits, despite a series of price cuts that trimmed the amount of revenue per vehicle sold.

Tesla (TSLA) reported adjusted earnings of $3.1 billion, or 91 cents a share, up 20% from the second quarter last year. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv had forecast earnings of 82 cents a share.

Its profit margin of 18.2% was also better than expected, although profit margins were still smaller than they were last year due to the series of price cuts the company announced since earlier this year. A year ago, Tesla’s margin was 25%, and even reported a 19.3% profit margin in the first quarter, when it first started to put the price cuts in place. But the forecast was that the continued price cuts would drop the profit margin under 17% in the most recent quarter.

Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One review: Good fun | Digital Trends

July 13, 2023July 11, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

With the exception of a uniquely slimy arms dealer played by the late, great Philip Seymour Hoffman, the villains in the Mission: Impossible movies have always been rather serviceable, even forgettable. That is, if you’d even consider them the villains. Time, altitude, gravity, probability: These are the real threats facing Ethan Hunt, the Tom Cruise-shaped pinball launched through every exhilarating espionage machine in the series.

In Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One, a sequel whose convoluted absurdity begins with the punctuation in its title, Hunt finally faces an enemy as intangible as the laws of nature he regularly defies. The Entity, as it’s called, is a sentient computer virus—a mass of malevolent code capable of hacking every database on the planet, and reshaping the world by redefining its notions of truth. It’s a timely foe for an age of invisible danger, disinformation, and AI anxiety. In its ability to predict and effectively control the future, it’s also a rather fitting adversary for Hunt. Has the living manifestation of destiny met his match in, well, the unliving master of it?

Easyjet cancels 1,700 flights from July to September | BBC News

July 11, 2023July 10, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Easyjet has confirmed it has cancelled 1,700 flights as people prepare to travel on their summer holidays.

The airline has axed flights during July, August and September, travelling to and from Gatwick airport.

Easyjet blamed constrained airspace over Europe and ongoing air traffic control difficulties, which are causing regular cancellations.

The company said 95% of affected passengers had been rebooked onto alternative flights.

Easyjet announced the decision as many schools in England and Wales prepare to break-up for the summer holidays.

Threads: Meta sets out planned new features | BBC News

July 11, 2023July 10, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Threads is looking into adding an alternative home feed, of only posts, in chronological order, from the people each individual user follows, according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri.

It currently shows a mix of recommended content and posts from those followed.

Threads was billed as an “initial version” at launch and the company has signalled more features are to come.

But a planned system to make Threads compatible with some other apps, such as Mastodon, has met with resistance.

Instagram, which is owned by Meta, built the Threads app.

Google adjusts privacy policy allowing use of public data for AI training | Mashable

July 6, 2023July 5, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Google can now use public data to help train and create AI products, according to new privacy policy changes.

As of July 1, the tech giant’s newly adjusted policy reads: “Google uses information to improve our services and to develop new products, features and technologies that benefit our users and the public. For example, we use publicly available information to help train Google’s AI models and build products and features like Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities.”

Previously, the policy only stated that publicly available information could be used to help train Google “language models” and gave a single mention of Google Translate.

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta launches Instagram’s Threads app, a rival to Twitter amidst Elon Musk backlash | CNN Business

July 6, 2023July 5, 2023 ~ knjohn ~ Leave a comment

Facebook has tried to compete with Twitter in numerous ways over the years, including copying signature Twitter features such as hashtags and trending topics. But now Facebook’s parent company is taking perhaps its biggest swipe at Twitter yet.

Meta on Wednesday officially launched a new app called Threads, which is intended to offer a space for real-time conversations online, a function that has long been Twitter’s core selling point.

The app appears to have many similarities to Twitter, from the layout to the product description. The listing, which first appeared earlier this week as a teaser, emphasizes its potential to build a following and connect with like-minded people.