Here are today’s top trending news from the world of technology. News that we feel every tech enthusiast should keep a tab on.
1)
Netflix is ending its DVD Business after 25 years
Today Netflix is the streaming giant with nearly 230 Mn subscribers across the world. But Netflix originally started as a DVD rental business back in 1998, a business that still continues even today though at a very miniscule and small scale. However, Netflix has now decided to windup its DVD rental business for once and all. The company will be shipping its final DVD on September 29th, following which it will permanently shut down its official rental website DVD.com. Netflix announced this news shortly ahead of its first quarter 2023 earnings.
2)
Reddit will now start charging for access to its API
Reddit’s co-founder & CEO Steve Huffman announced on Tuesday that Reddit will no longer give free access to its APIs though the policy of paid APIs will be applicable only on select users. According to The New York Times, Reddit’s API will remain free to developers who want to build apps and bots that are eventually beneficial to reddit users. But the company will charge from those companies that crawl reddit data but don’t return anything in value. Reddit’s decision comes closely on the heels of Twitter’s decision to restrict third party access to its API.
3)
WhatsApp opposes U.K Law that makes ‘encryption’ illegal
WhatsApp’s Head Will Cathcart has signed an open letter that opposes UK’S new controversial bill named as Online Safety Bill. This bill, which was introduced by U.K’s former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, seeks to provide law enforcement agencies some sweeping rights including breaking end-to-end encryption messages and scan the private messages of the citizens. In the open letter WhatsApp and other tech companies has opposed the bill, claiming it to be a threat to the privacy and safety of U.K citizens. WhatsApp has always taken pride over the fact that its messages are 100% encrypted and its users don’t have to worry about their privacy.
4)
Elon Musk says buying Twitter was a poor financial decision
It is pretty well known that Twitter’s acquisition has given Elon Musk pretty hard times. And now Musk has finally admitted in his latest interview with Fox News that buying the microblogging company was actually a poor financial decision. The tech billionaire specified that his timing of the acquisition was terrible, arguing that advertising rates plummeted soon after he bought Twitter. However, he still termed the acquisition as ‘priceless’ as it is giving him opportunity to strengthen the democracy and strengthen the free speech. Recently in a interview given to BBC, the Tesla boss said that he is open for selling Twitter if he finds the right person.
5)
Google faces Service Outage in U.S (services are back now)
Google search faced a partial outage in the U.S. on Tuesday with thousands of users complaining that they were facing problems in accessing Google Search. According to outage tacking website Downdetector, nearly 22,000 users in the U.S were affected by this outage. Google’s spokesperson confirmed the outage but did not give any exact reasons. The spokesperson said in a mail “There was a very brief issue affecting the availability of results for some searches limited to America region and it was quickly addressed.”