Microsoft has quietly turned itself into a real rival to Facebook and Instagram by taking a 'purpose-built' approach to social media

Between Xbox Live, LinkedIn, GitHub, and other initiatives, Microsoft has quietly made itself into a social media superpower.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/satya-nadella-reshaped-microsofts-social-network-business-2021-10?source=Snapzu

It’s clear capitalism isn’t working when US politicians try to bring back child labor

There is something very, very wrong with a system that would rather recruit more kids instead of paying better wages and providing more benefits to adults
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/30/capitalism-isnt-working-us-politicians-child-labor?source=Snapzu

Microsoft passes Apple to become the world's most valuable company

Microsoft and Apple have each had their turn as the world's most valuable company.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/29/microsoft-passes-apple-to-become-the-worlds-most-valuable-company-.html?source=Snapzu

Uber aims for 50,000 Teslas on its platform by 2023

Uber drivers will pay a weekly rate of $334 for a Model 3.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2021/10/27/22747184/uber-tesla-rent-drivers-hertz-cost-2023?source=Snapzu

Microsoft Overtakes Apple as World's Most Valuable Company

Microsoft has overtaken Apple as the world's most valuable company, making the Cupertino tech giant the second most valuable in the world, followed by Saudi oil giant Aramco.
Read more: https://www.macrumors.com/2021/10/29/microsoft-worlds-most-valuable-company/?source=Snapzu

Microsoft buys moderation company Two Hat to keep the Xbox community safe

Microsoft has acquired content moderation company Two Hat for an undisclosed fee. The tech giant said the deal will allow it to build better online experiences for its various communities, including those on Xbox. Microsoft and Two Hat have prevously worked together to implement proactive moderation technology into gaming experiences, including tools that detect and remove harmful content before it can reach players.
Read more: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/microsoft-buys-moderation-company-two-hat-to-keep-the-xbox-community-safe?source=Snapzu

Facebook Is Killing Oculus

Facebook, which today changed its name to Meta just for fun, is making changes to its virtual reality division to match its rebrand. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth announced that the company would transition away from the Oculus branding beginning in 2022.
Read more: https://gizmodo.com/facebook-is-killing-oculus-1847959708?source=Snapzu

US Copyright Office says you can fix a game console (but only the optical drive)

The librarian of Congress has provided a new exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that will let people repair optical drives on video game consoles. The new rule will also allow users to perform "diagnosis, maintenance, and repair" of other types of software-enabled devices marketed to consumers.
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/us-copyright-office-oks-right-to-repair-for-video-game-console-optical-drives/?source=Snapzu

GameStop Seeks Software Developer for NFTs as Market Heats Up

GameStop has posted at least eight NFT and “Web3 gaming” job positions. The gaming retailer has not yet officially revealed its intentions, but the posting suggests GameStop might be looking to build an Ethereum-based Web3 arm.
Read more: https://tokenist.com/gamestop-seeks-software-developer-for-nfts-as-market-heats-up/?source=Snapzu

Facebook is now Meta, but critics say same old problems remain

Facebook officially launched its new name on Thursday, one that focuses attention on where it sees its future while drawing attention away from its contentious present and past.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/facebook-metaverse-1.6228377?source=Snapzu

Costco raised its minimum wage to $17 an hour

Costco this week raised its starting wage for hourly store workers in the United States for the second time this year as businesses hike pay to draw and retain workers amid a labor shortage. Costco (COST) told employees last week that it would increase its minimum wage from $16 an hour to $17 starting on Monday. Costco has around 180,000 US employees, and 90% of them work hourly.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/27/business/costco-minimum-wage/index.html?source=Snapzu

Walmart Billionaire Marc Lore Is Planning a $500 Billion “City of the Future”

While other billionaires are jockeying to get into space, Marc Lore has his eyes on planet Earth: The former Walmart exec has announced plans to create a new utopian city in the American desert, featuring self-driving cars and energy-efficient skyscrapers.
Read more: https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/telosa-city-of-the-future?source=Snapzu

The Strange New Trend That’s Enraging Hiring Managers

My, how the tables have turned.
Read more: https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/10/job-seeking-advice-hiring-trend-tight-economy.html?source=Snapzu

Woman claims strawberry Pop-Tarts don't have enough strawberries, sues for $5 million

Kellogg is being hit with a multimillion-dollar lawsuit alleging its "Whole Grain Frosted Strawberry" Pop-Tarts are deceiving consumers, failing to warn them that strawberries are not its only fruit filling ingredient. “Strawberries are the Product’s characterizing ingredient, since their amount has a material bearing on price and consumer acceptance, and consumers expect they are present in an amount greater than other fruits,” the suit asserted.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/ncna1282442?source=Snapzu

Brutal WordPress plugin bug allows subscribers to wipe sites

A high severity security flaw found in a WordPress plugin with more than 8,000 active installs can let authenticated attackers reset and wipe vulnerable websites.
Read more: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/brutal-wordpress-plugin-bug-allows-subscribers-to-wipe-sites/?source=Snapzu

CEO Mark Zuckerberg responds to the massive Facebook document dump

CEO Mark Zuckerberg kicked off Facebook's quarterly earnings call by addressing the latest wave of coverage based on a trove of leaked internal documents on Monday.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/25/tech/facebook-earnings-q3/index.html?source=Snapzu

Whistleblower Frances Haugen says Facebook's investment in the 'metaverse' shows how its priorities are all wrong

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told UK lawmakers on Monday she's "shocked" that the company is pouring so much money into the so-called "metaverse." Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told The Verge in July that he wanted Facebook to become a "metaverse company." The word metaverse is borrowed from science-fiction, and refers to a future version of the internet which people access using virtual-reality and augmented-reality headsets, rather than via laptops and phones.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-metaverse-frances-haugen-whistleblower-shocked-by-investment-2021-10?source=Snapzu

Mastercard says any bank or merchant on its vast network can soon offer crypto services

The crypto economy is about to expand. Mastercard is preparing to announce that any of the thousands of banks and millions of merchants on its payments network can soon integrate crypto into their products, CNBC has learned.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/25/mastercard-says-any-bank-or-merchant-on-its-vast-network-can-soon-offer-crypto-services.html?source=Snapzu

Where Facts Were No Match for Fear

Civic boosters in central Montana hoped for some federal money to promote tourism. A disinformation campaign got in the way.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/us/politics/montana-misinformation-national-heritage.html?source=Snapzu

Apple announces App Store changes in wake of Epic Games ruling

Apple announced on Friday that developers will be allowed to target users with other ways to pay for digital goods and services in their apps using emails and more, in the wake of the Epic Games ruling and antitrust criticism of its App Store.
Read more: https://www.imore.com/apple-announces-app-store-changes-wake-epic-games-ruling?source=Snapzu

RSS is Wonderful

Inspired by Web Rings from the 90s, I created a tool for serendipitous discovery of blogs called RSS Discovery Engine. Similar to how web rings work, I make the assumption that interesting blogs will tend to link to other related blogs, and therefore, linked blogs are likely to also be interesting.
Read more: https://quakkels.com/posts/rss-is-wonderful/?source=Snapzu

Trump Named His New Social Network ‘Truth’ and It’s Already a Mess

Within minutes of the platform being announced, people had found a way to register fake Donald Trump accounts.
Read more: https://www.vice.com/en/article/4awgnq/trump-named-his-new-social-network-truth-and-its-already-a-mess?source=Snapzu

Evergrande says a $2.6 billion sale has collapsed as another payment deadline looms

Evergrande has called off plans for a multibillion-dollar deal for its property management unit, worsening its cash crunch as the Chinese real estate giant teeters on the brink of collapse.
Read more: https://www.azarguy.com/2021/10/evergrande-says-26-billion-sale-has.html?source=Snapzu

The Egyptian Egg Ovens Considered More Wondrous Than the Pyramids

A hatching system devised 2,000 years ago is still in use in rural Egypt.
Read more: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/egypt-egg-ovens?source=Snapzu

Snap CEO says Apple's privacy policies have been affecting its revenue

Earlier this year, Apple implemented a new App Tracking Transparency system that requires the user to allow or deny third-party apps from tracking them over the internet. Although Snap (the company behind Snapchat) was in favor of these changes at first, it now says its revenue has been affected by Apple’s new privacy policies.
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/21/snap-ceo-says-apples-privacy-policies-have-been-affecting-its-revenue/?source=Snapzu

Russian court bars sale of Samsung phones over patent lawsuit -report

A Russian court has barred Samsung Electronics from importing and selling 61 models of smartphones in Russia over an intellectual property lawsuit pertaining to its Samsung Pay system, the RIA news agency reported on Thursday.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/technology/russian-court-bars-sale-samsung-phones-over-lawsuit-report-2021-10-21/?source=Snapzu

Facebook's Name Change Won’t Fix Anything

Can rebranding the company herald a fresh start? Experts, as you might guess, are skeptical.
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/facebook-name-change-wont-fix-anything/?source=Snapzu

A patented PlayStation feature allows players to pay to kick others from games

The patent, which is titled ‘Spectators Vote to Bench Players in a Video Game’, was filed in January 2020 and was granted on Tuesday. The described feature lets spectators vote to remove (or ‘bench’) players, send them messages to warn them to play better, or even pay to have them removed.
Read more: https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/a-patented-playstation-feature-allows-players-to-pay-to-kick-others-from-games/?source=Snapzu

PayPal said to be exploring potential acquisition of Pinterest

In what would be a blockbuster acquisition, PayPal is reportedly exploring the purchase of social media company Pinterest, according to Bloomberg. According to the publication, San Jose, California-based PayPal has “recently approached” Pinterest about a potential buyout.
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/20/paypal-said-to-be-exploring-potential-acquisition-of-pinterest/?source=Snapzu

Brazil has the most expensive new MacBook Pro and AirPods 3 in the world

If you are thinking about buying the new M1 Pro and M1 Max MacBook Pro or even AirPods 3, don’t do it in Brazil. Yet again, the South American country has the most expensive Apple products in the world. Here’s where you should and shouldn’t buy the new Mac and AirPods 3.
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2021/10/19/brazil-has-the-most-expensive-new-macbook-pro-and-airpods-3-in-the-world/?source=Snapzu

How Hackers Hijacked Thousands of High-Profile YouTube Accounts

Google has shed light on a spate of attacks that turned creator channels into cryptocurrency scam livestreams.
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/youtube-bitcoin-scam-account-hijacking-google-phishing/?source=Snapzu

Xbox Game Pass subscriptions miss Microsoft’s target

Xbox Game Pass is often touted as the best deal in gaming and its subscriber count is a shorthand measure of Microsoft’s gaming success.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/xbox-microsoft-subscription-gaming-d047cf43-e9b4-4a33-bd25-1ab2c0ad9346.html?source=Snapzu

Elizabeth Holmes is on trial for fraud, but don't forget about her VC enablers

Many startup companies use the same loophole as Theranos to bypass the FDA. I worked and...
Read more: https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Elizabeth-Holmes-is-on-trial-for-fraud-but-16546832.php?source=Snapzu

Tesco opens its first checkout-free store

Tesco has opened its first checkout-free store in central London where people can shop without having to scan a product. The UK's biggest retailer said its branch in High Holborn has been converted to allow customers to shop and pay without using a checkout. The new format, known as GetGo, follows similar stores opened by Amazon.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-58951984?source=Snapzu

Intel CEO blames predecessors for manufacturing woes

When it comes to Intel's recent manufacturing problems, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger places the blame squarely on his predecessors — many of whom he notes were not engineers deeply steeped in chip technology, as he is.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/pat-gelsinger-blame-intels-manufacturing-woes-9ffec484-6b6f-45da-a986-e5d499d84e91.html?source=Snapzu

Amazon may have lied to Congress, five U.S. lawmakers say

Five members of the U.S. House Judiciary committee wrote to Amazon.com Inc's chief executive Sunday, and accused the company's top executives, including founder Jeff Bezos, of either misleading Congress or possibly lying to it about Amazon's business practices.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/technology/five-us-lawmakers-accuse-amazon-possibly-lying-congress-following-reuters-report-2021-10-18/?source=Snapzu

Oil prices climb as COVID recovery, power generators stoke demand

Oil prices hit multi-year highs on Monday buoyed by recovering demand and high natural gas and coal prices encouraging users to switch to fuel oil and diesel for power generation.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-prices-climb-highest-years-covid-recovery-power-generators-stoke-demand-2021-10-18/?source=Snapzu

Uber tests shared rides in Africa as UberPool stays shut in US, Canada

Uber is testing Pool Chance, a feature that lets riders heading in the same direction share the cost of the journey, in Kenya, with plans to roll out the low-cost service to Ghana and Nigeria. TechCrunch discovered the option when booking a car in Nairobi, Kenya. An Uber spokesperson later confirmed it was part of a pilot (beta version) of the service that it plans to roll out more widely, pending the outcome of the smaller test.
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/18/uber-tests-shared-rides-in-africa-as-uberpool-stays-shut-in-us-canada/?source=Snapzu

Why American workers are quitting in record numbers

The number of Americans quitting their jobs has hit record highs over the past several months in a phenomenon economists have been calling the “Great Resignation.” In August, 4.3 million U.S. workers — almost 3 percent of the entire American workforce — voluntarily left their positions, the highest number since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking “quits” in 2020.
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/why-american-workers-are-quitting-in-record-numbers-151116968.html?source=Snapzu

For Uber and Lyft, the Rideshare Bubble Bursts

Rideharing companies made a lot of promises. They’re not being kept.
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/17/opinion/uber-lyft.html?source=Snapzu

'Squid Game' success shines a light on how cheap it is to make TV shows outside the U.S.

In the streaming wars, one company’s hit is another company’s failure. Netflix’s “Squid Game” is an exception. Netflix has its biggest hit ever with “Squid Game,” the gory dystopian South Korean series that has taken the world by storm. More than 111 million viewers globally have already watched at least two minutes of the show.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/16/netflixs-squid-game-success-shines-light-on-international-discounts.html?source=Snapzu

Facebook created its own PR nightmare and it deserves everything that's happening

Facebook's lack of willingness to maintain healthy relationships with the media has now bitten them on the backside.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-pr-press-problems-journalism-apple-tesla-media-2021-10?source=Snapzu

Netflix fires employee as internal conflicts over latest Dave Chappelle special grow

The company alleges that the employee leaked confidential information outside the company. Netflix employees have planned a walkout over transphobic comments made in Chappelle's new special.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/2021/10/15/1046542295/netflix-fires-employee-as-internal-conflicts-over-latest-dave-chappelle-special-?source=Snapzu

Researchers show Facebook’s ad tools can target a single user

A new research paper written by a team of academics and computer scientists from Spain and Austria has demonstrated that it’s possible to use Facebook’s targeting tools to deliver an ad exclusively to a single...
Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2021/10/15/researchers-show-facebooks-ad-tools-can-target-a-single-user/?source=Snapzu

Why giant turbines are pushing the limits of possibility

Next year, Danish wind turbine manufacturer Vestas will put up a gargantuan prototype - a 15-megawatt (MW) wind turbine that will be powerful enough to provide electricity to roughly 13,000 British homes. It will be the biggest such turbine in the world, though potentially not for long. Wind turbines just keep getting bigger - and it's happening faster than almost anybody predicted.
Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58704792?source=Snapzu

Holmes used fake pharma reports to sell Theranos tech to Walgreens, prosecution says

Walgreens thought “the technology worked as we were told.”
Read more: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/10/to-hook-walgreens-holmes-gave-execs-fake-pharma-reports-prosecution-says/?source=Snapzu

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest gets behind a bitcoin futures ETF, stepping up its crypto involvement

Cathie Wood's Ark Invest has put its name to a bitcoin futures ETF assigned with the ticker ARKA - a positive sign for SEC approval, an analyst said.
Read more: https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/cathie-wood-ark-bitcoin-etf-crypto-21shares-sec-approval-filing-2021-10?source=Snapzu

Amazon copied products and rigged search results to promote its own brands, new investigation finds

Amazon has been repeatedly accused of knocking off products it sells on its website and of exploiting its wealth of internal data to promote its own merchandise at the expense of other sellers. And now, we have proof.
Read more: https://screenshot-media.com/the-future/business/amazon-rigged-searches/?source=Snapzu

How Much E-waste are We Making?

A group of researchers across the UNU, UNITAR, ITU, and ISWA[0] recently released The Global E-waste Monitor 2020 report, giving us an up to date look at just how much electronic waste we’re generating around the world. The numbers are worrying. We’ve gone from 44.4 million metric tons per year in 2014 to 53.6 million metric tons in 2019.
Read more: https://frame.work/blog/how-much-e-waste-are-we-making?source=Snapzu

Amazon copied products and rigged search results, documents show

A trove of Amazon documents reveals how the company ran a campaign in India of creating knockoff goods and manipulating search results to boost its own products.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/amazon-india-rigging/?source=Snapzu