Here are the top trending stories from the world of technology. Stories that we feel every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.
1)
Elon Musk is planning a massive lay off at Twitter
If the tech billionaire Elon Musk has its way then a massive lay off is all but evitable at Twitter. This is obviously subjected to the fact that the Musk will have to complete the Twitter deal, with both parties currently locked in a high profile legal battle. But if Twitter’s ownership does fall in the hands of Musk then nearly 75% of the company’s employees will have to quit their jobs, according to The Washington Post. The job cuts are basically Musk’s long term plan to make microblogging company more profitable and make it more attractive for shareholders. Unlike Facebook, Twitter has never achieved profitability till date.
2)
TikTok accused of spying on the US citizens
Popular Chinese short video app TikTok has been accused by the Forbes magazine of conducting spy operation on certain U.S. citizens. Without disclosing the identity of these U.S. citizens, the popular business magazine claimed that TikTok had serious plans of collecting precise GPS locations among other things of these citizens. However, the Chinese app has flatly denied these allegations. In a series of tweets, TikTok said that Forbes has deliberately left out certain vital information in the article in order to substantialize the story. This story has been broken at a time when TikTok is already facing heat on data privacy concerns in the U.S.
3)
India penalizes Google $162 Mn for anti-competitive practices
India’s anti-trust body Competition Commission of India or CII has levelled a hefty penalty of $161 Mn on Google for indulging in anti-competitive practices. CII came to this conclusion after going through nitty gritties of the case that was filed against Google almost three and a half years back. In this complaint, Google has been accused of making it mandatory for all smartphone manufacturers to download Google suite on their Android phone. CCI said that this amounts to anti-competitive practices since Google owns Android. India happens to be Google’s largest market in terms of userbase.
4)
Jeff Bezos warns of Prolong Economic Recession
Jeff Bezos has become the latest corporate moghul to warn about the upcoming economic recession. Amazon’s boss, who is also the third richest man, tweeted on Tuesday that economy is ‘batten down the hatches,’ which simply means that the economy is heading towards troubling times. But even before Bezos made this worrying prediction about the economy, many big tech companies have already announced job cuts while others have said that they will slow down hiring. Meanwhile, U.S. Joe Biden has tried to calm down the nerves by claiming that there will only be a slight recession and not prolong recession that most people are fearing.
5)
SpaceX’s Starlink starts in-flight Wi-fi services
Keeping in line with Elon Musk’s long term ambition of providing Wi fi services to air passengers, Starlink has now rolled out its Starlink Aviation services. As part of this service, Musk’s company will start providing wi-fi internet services to passengers travelling through private jets. Starlink will be charging whopping $12,500 a month from passengers for using its internet services. In the coming months, this service is expected to be launched in full-fledge airline flights. Currently, most air plane passengers can’t access internet in their flights due to inherent limitations of optics fibre technology.