Apple patents Magic Keyboard with integrated Mac inside to bring macOS to any display

Apple is working on an all-new computer concept – a Magic Keyboard designed with a full computer inside that can plug in to any display.
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2022/02/25/apple-patents-magic-keyboard-with-integrated-mac-inside/?source=Snapzu

World expresses outrage, plans stronger Russia sanctions

World leaders Thursday reacted to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with raw outrage — and vows of unprecedented sanctions — that shrouded a sense of powerlessness to defend Ukraine militarily without running the risk of a wider war in Europe.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-business-asia-europe-united-nations-8744320842fca825ae4e4ccae5acbe34?source=Snapzu

Apple Would Rather Pay Up to €50 Million in Fines Than Address 'Gatekeeper' App Store Behavior, Says EU Chief

Apple would rather pay a maximum of €50 million in fines than address concerns brought forward by the Dutch competition authority regarding developer access to third-party payment methods on the App Store, the EU's head of digital policy, Margrethe Vestager, has said.
Read more: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/02/23/apple-rather-pay-fines-than-address-app-store/?source=Snapzu

Trump’s free speech app Truth Social is censoring content and kicking off users

Nearly 500,000 people are on the app’s “waitlist”..
Read more: https://www.engadget.com/trumps-free-speech-app-truth-social-is-censoring-content-and-kicking-off-users-023153584.html?source=Snapzu

Supreme Court will decide whether web designer has a right to turn away same-sex couples

Lawyers who represented a Colorado baker are back in court defending a web designer who doesn't want to design sites for same-sex weddings.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2022-02-22/supreme-court-free-speech-right-to-turn-away-same-sex-couples?source=Snapzu

President Biden wants to know more about cryptocurrencies before creating a digital dollar

The White House is set to start working on a strategy to study and regulate cryptocurrency, while also looking into developing its own central bank digital currency (CBDC). Coming off the back of a Federal Reserve report (PDF warning) into a digital dollar, and according to a report in Yahoo Finance, President Biden will issue an executive order on cryptocurrency oversight next week.
Read more: https://www.pcgamer.com/president-biden-wants-to-know-more-about-cryptocurrencies-before-creating-a-digital-dollar/?source=Snapzu

NBC's Ratings Fall At Winter Olympics Seen As A 'Disaster' For Network

There were many reasons to think NBC made a savvy business deal in 2014 when it locked up the American media rights to the Olympics through 2032 for $7.75 billion. As the Beijing winter games come to a close, it’s harder to see them now.
Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/nbc-ratings-beijing-winter-olympics_n_6212234ee4b0f93b2619b86b?source=Snapzu

Apple has a clear path to $1T in revenue by 2030

Apple could hit a trillion dollars in annual revenue with a continued expansion of its various businesses, according to an NYU professor, with acquisitions and investments in fields such as banking, search, health, and the long-rumored Apple Car able to help edge Apple to the milestone by 2030.
Read more: https://appleinsider.com/articles/22/02/19/apple-has-a-clear-path-to-1t-in-revenue-by-2030?source=Snapzu

Microsoft opened Activision acquisition talks three days after CEO harassment report

When Microsoft announced it would spend $68.7 billion to buy Activision Blizzard to bolster its Xbox gaming division, the news came as a surprise to many. For months, the troubled publisher had been in headlines stemming from the workplace sexual harassment lawsuit filed by California’s fair employment agency in July.
Read more: https://www.engadget.com/microsoft-activision-blizzard-sec-filing-225923532.html?source=Snapzu

Revealed: Credit Suisse leak unmasks criminals, fraudsters and corrupt politicians

Massive leak reveals Swiss bank’s accounts have been used by an array of high-risk clients over several decades
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/feb/20/credit-suisse-secrets-leak-unmasks-criminals-fraudsters-corrupt-politicians?source=Snapzu

Facebook misled investors about battling climate and COVID lies: SEC filings

In complaints to the U.S. government, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen accused the tech giant of misleading investors about combating climate and Covid-19 misinformation, The Washington Post revealed Friday.
Read more: https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/facebook-investors/?source=Snapzu

Some U.S. Apple Store employees are working to unionize, part of a growing worker backlash

Employees at several Apple Stores across the country are quietly working to unionize, according to people familiar with the efforts, as growing dissent among hourly workers threatens to disrupt one of the most stolid tech giants. Groups at at least two Apple retail stores are backed by major national unions and are preparing to file paperwork with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the near future, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential plans. At least a half dozen more locations are at less-advanced stages in the unionization process, these people say.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/02/18/apple-retail-stores-union-labor/?source=Snapzu

Why RSS is useful and important

Let’s say I want to be an informed, engaged local citizen. Let’s say my town has a website set up where they post local updates and alerts that I might care about...
Read more: https://tech.chrishardie.com/2022/rss-useful-important/?source=Snapzu

Canada's major banks go offline in mysterious hours-long outage

Five major Canadian banks went offline for hours blocking access to online and mobile banking as well as e-transfers for customers. The banks reportedly hit by the outage include Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), BMO (Bank of Montreal), Scotiabank, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC).
Read more: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/canadas-major-banks-go-offline-in-mysterious-hours-long-outage/?source=Snapzu

Read Mark Zuckerberg's 6 new corporate values for Facebook's Meta rebrand

On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an update to the company’s longstanding corporate values that Zuckerberg first penned in 2007 when the company he founded still called itself Facebook.
Read more: https://fortune.com/2022/02/16/mark-zuckerberg-meta-facebook-corporate-values-metamates-rebrand-metaverse/?source=Snapzu

Plain language guide: 51 tips to write in plain English for better readability

If you want more people to read what you've written and to understand what you mean, the tips in this plain English writing guide will help.
Read more: https://thgmwriters.com/blog/tips-write-plain-english-language-readability/?source=Snapzu

'Don't be Google': The rise of privacy focused startups

Google once used the slogan "don't be evil" to distinguish itself from its competitors, but now a growing number of pro-privacy startups are rallying to the mantra "don't be Google". They are taking on Google Analytics, a product used by more than half of the world's websites to understand people's browsing habits.
Read more: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-02-dont-google-privacy-focused-startups.html?source=Snapzu

Netherlands' competition regulator fines Apple another $5.6 million

The Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) said the revised conditions that Apple has imposed on dating-app providers are unreasonable, and create an unnecessary barrier.
Read more: https://www.business-standard.com/article/technology/netherlands-competition-regulator-fines-apple-another-5-6-million-122021500334_1.html?source=Snapzu

Big banks fund new oil and gas despite net zero pledges

Big banks are pumping billions into new oil and gas production despite net zero pledges, campaigners have said. Banks including HSBC, Barclays and Deutsche Bank are still backing new oil and gas despite being part of a green banking group, ShareAction said. Investors should force banks to demand green plans from fossil fuel firms before funding them, it said.
Read more: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-60366054?source=Snapzu

A robot bought my seven-year-old car for more than I paid brand-new

In December 2014, I bought a Honda Fit right off the lot. It had 23 miles, and I paid $20,814.80, including accessories and an extended warranty. This December, a buzzy startup called Carvana drove away with my car, cutting me a check for $20,905 — leaving me with a profit of $90.20.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/22923871/carvana-pandemic-used-car-prices-sold-online-chip-shortage?source=Snapzu

Best Buy Needs to Quit This Nonsense

In case attempting to buy a graphics card at or near retail prices hasn’t been demoralizing enough, Best Buy is here to kick us while we’re down. The retailer is exploiting the ongoing supply shortage and our resulting desperation to force customers into paying another $200 for a shot at buying a graphics card.
Read more: https://gizmodo.com/best-buy-totaltech-gpu-shortage-1848525753?source=Snapzu

Binance invests $200 million in Forbes just two years after suing it for defamation

Forbes has announced that Binance, “one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency and blockchain infrastructure providers,” is making a $200 million investment to own a part of an “iconic business information brand.” That money is part of a $400 million private investment in public equity (PIPE) arrangement set up for Forbes to go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/11/22929860/forbes-binance-spac-razzlekhan-web3-cryptocurrency?source=Snapzu

As prices soar, Congress keeps giving ranchers a sweetheart deal

Inflation may be at a 40-year high, but the cost of grazing livestock on public lands is lower today than it was 40 years ago. Last week, the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service announced the latest federal rate: just $1.35. Adjusted for inflation, ranchers paid more than five times as much in 1981.
Read more: https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2022/02/inflation-cattle-livestock-ranchers-free-ride-federal-grazing-fees/?source=Snapzu

These 23 year-old Texans made $4 million last year mining bitcoin off flare gas from oil drilling

When Brent Whitehead and Matt Lohstroh were sophomores at Texas A&M University, they decided to get into the business of mining bitcoin on the oil fields of East Texas. The year was 2019, and at the time, the idea of oil and gas companies joining forces with bitcoin miners was considered both avant-garde — and a major taboo.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/12/23-year-old-texans-made-4-million-mining-bitcoin-off-flared-natural-gas.html?__source=iosappshare%7Ccom.apple.UIKit.activity.CopyToPasteboard?source=Snapzu

Librarian's lament: Digital books are not fireproof

Publishers are using copyright law as a battering ram to assert corporate control over the public good.
Read more: https://www.zdnet.com/article/digital-books-are-not-fireproof/?source=Snapzu

The extinction crisis that no one’s talking about

Coffee, wine, and wheat varieties are among the foods we could lose forever.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/22906478/food-diversity-extinction-dan-saladino?source=Snapzu

California agency accuses Tesla of racial segregation at factory

A California agency filed a racial discrimination complaint against Tesla on Wednesday, accusing the electric carmaker of segregating Black employees at its factory in the US state. The California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) "found evidence that Tesla's Fremont factory is a racially segregated workplace where Black workers are subjected to racial slurs and discriminated against in job assignments, discipline, pay, and promotion," said Kevin Kish, the agency's director, in a statement.
Read more: https://techxplore.com/news/2022-02-california-agency-accuses-tesla-racial.html?source=Snapzu

Snoop Dogg Now Officially Owns Death Row Records

Snoop Dogg has acquired Death Row Records from the Blackstone-owned MNRK Music Group, which purchased the iconic label’s previous owner last year.
Read more: https://www.complex.com/music/snoop-dogg-acquires-death-row-records?source=Snapzu

Apple to offer paid parental leave and more sick days to retail employees

Apple will expand benefits for all of its retail employees in the US, beginning April 4th. Bloomberg reports the new benefits include increased vacation and sick days, paid parental leave and more. It will impact both full-time and part-time employees across all 270 Apple Stores nationwide.
Read more: https://www.engadget.com/apple-store-raises-benefits-000123583.html?source=Snapzu

Peloton CEO John Foley is stepping down and the company plans to cut around 2,800 jobs, report says

Peloton cofounder John Foley is relinquishing his role as CEO, the company said Tuesday. Foley, who co-founded Peloton in 2012, will become executive chair. Barry McCarthy, formerly CFO of Spotify and Netflix, will replace Foley as CEO. McCarthy will also replace William Lynch as president.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/peloton-ceo-john-foley-is-stepping-down-wsj-2022-2?source=Snapzu

US poultry giant Tyson using land ‘twice the size of New Jersey’ for animal feed, study says

Tyson Foods utilizes between nine and 10m acres of farmland – an area almost twice the size of New Jersey – to produce corn and soybeans to feed the more than 2 billion animals it processes every year in the US alone, according to new research.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/feb/09/us-poultry-giant-tyson-farmland-twice-size-new-jersey-feed-animals?source=Snapzu

Why Zuckerberg DGAF about losing Facebook users

Hold the obituaries. Despite Meta losing $200 billion of value in a day, its social network still looks unassailable.
Read more: https://mashable.com/article/facebook-zuckerberg-losing?source=Snapzu

Facebook Parent Meta's Stock Continues Freefall, With Another 5% Drop on Monday

Meta’s stock continued to plummet Monday, adding another 5% to what is now a 27% drop in the last week since the company’s disappointing Q4 earnings. After shedding more than $230 billion of its market value in the last week, its valuation is less than a quarter of Apple’s $2.8 trillion market cap. Meta went down in history last Thursday for the biggest one-day crash in the stock market.
Read more: https://www.thewrap.com/meta-stock-continues-falling-more-than-27-as-facebook-shrinks/?source=Snapzu

Spotify CEO says company won't be "silencing" Joe Rogan

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek told employees Sunday that while he strongly condemns past racial slurs used by Joe Rogan, he won't cut ties with the platform's most popular podcaster, according to an internal memo obtained by Axios. Why it matters: Spotify has come under fire in recent weeks for anti-vaccination comments made by Rogan — which prompted boycotts from several musicians."While I strongly condemn what Joe has said and I agree with his decision to remove past episodes from our platform, I realize some will want more," Ek wrote.
Read more: https://www.axios.com/spotify-ceo-streamer-wont-silence-joe-rogan-68bb602d-ed95-426a-bc5e-27c24c79b1cd.html?source=Snapzu

Google co-founder Larry Page sold more than $80 million worth of stock

Google parent Alphabet Inc. disclosed that Larry Page, co-founder and current board member, has sold more than $80 million worth of shares, a couple of days after the stock shot up on the back of a blowout earnings report and stock-split announcement.
Read more: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/google-co-founder-larry-page-sold-more-than-80-million-worth-of-stock-11644236122?source=Snapzu

World's biggest companies accused of exaggerating their climate actions

The climate pledges of the world’s largest companies plan to reduce absolute carbon emissions by just 40% on average, not 100% as suggested by their net-zero claims, according to a study of 25 corporations. The analysis, published Monday by non-profit organizations NewClimate Institute and Carbon Market Watch, found the headline climate pledges of most major multinational firms cannot be taken at face value.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/02/07/study-worlds-biggest-firms-seen-exaggerating-their-climate-actions.html?source=Snapzu

Apple used NDAs against workers and 'straight out lied' about it, claims report

A report claims that Apple used NDAs against workers, and then lied about it to both investors and the Securities & Exchange Commission ...
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2022/02/07/apple-used-ndas-and-lied/?source=Snapzu

‘Working class people are getting priced out’: cost-of-living crisis spreads to live music

When Robson Scott, a live music fan from Newcastle, went to his first gig in 2011, he remembers paying around £30 for a standing ticket to see Katy Perry at Utilita arena. Ten years later, he says, “for arena gigs of that calibre you’d usually be paying over £65.” That’s a rise that far exceeds the UK’s rate of inflation during that time, which was 2.6% per year, on average, or the equivalent of £8.90.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/feb/07/how-live-music-joined-cost-of-living-crisis?source=Snapzu

Cannabis Promotion on Social Media Is Evading Regulation

With increasing legalization of recreational cannabis for adults across the US, public health experts have raised concerns about the impact of an unintended consequence—increased youth exposure to cannabis promotional messages. This concern is based on previous work illustrating that youth are susceptible to persuasive alcohol messaging.
Read more: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/healing-addiction/202202/cannabis-promotion-social-media-is-evading-regulation?source=Snapzu

Walmart Just Invested Big in Vertical Farming

Walmart's investment in vertical farming startup Plenty will bring organic greens to its California stores and help scale the technology.
Read more: https://singularityhub.com/2022/01/28/walmart-just-invested-big-in-vertical-farming/?source=Snapzu

Apple @ Work: Apple gives employees $1,000 to build their home office setup, here's our suggested gear

We learned back in December that Apple has yet again delayed its return to the office. It was also reported that Apple gives employees $1,000 bonuses to spend on home office gear. When I read that, I thought to myself – what would the best use of it be?
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2022/02/05/apple-gives-employees-1000-to-build-their-home-office-setup-heres-our-suggested-gear/?source=Snapzu

Apple's privacy changes have cut $278 billion from 4 Big Tech firms

Social media is having a moment. In April of 2021, Apple made a big change to its privacy controls, limiting the tracking capabilities of digital advertisers and enabling iPhone users to opt-out of data sharing. It seemed clear at the time that this could fundamentally reshape digital reality, but now we're finally seeing how much all that private data was really worth.
Read more: https://interestingengineering.com/apples-privacy-cut-278-billion?source=Snapzu

The World Loses Under Bill Gates’ Vaccine Colonialism

Gates pushed for a plan that would permit companies to hold exclusive rights to lifesaving medicines, no matter how much they benefited from public funding. Given the enormous influence Gates has in the global public health world, his vision ultimately won out in the Covax program—which enshrines monopoly patent rights and relies on the charitable whims of rich countries and pharmaceutical giants to provide vaccines to most of the world.
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-the-world-loses-under-bill-gates-vaccine-colonialism/?source=Snapzu

New model explores link between animal agriculture and climate change | Stanford News

Phasing out animal agriculture represents “our best and most immediate chance to reverse the trajectory of climate change,” according to a new model developed by scientists from Stanford and the University of California, Berkeley.
Read more: https://news.stanford.edu/2022/02/01/new-model-explores-link-animal-agriculture-climate-change/?source=Snapzu

Kim Kardashian sued in crypto 'pump and dump' case

Kim Kardashian is among three celebrities being sued by investors in the EthereumMax crypto-currency. Other defendants include boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr, basketball player Paul Pierce, and the currency's creators. The legal action alleges the celebrities collaborated with EthereumMax to "misleadingly promote and sell" the crypto-currency.
Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59964648?source=Snapzu

Big Tech told it should reimburse victims of online scams

Big Tech companies whose online platforms carry advertisements for scams should be made to reimburse victims as part of wider efforts to combat a growing epidemic of online fraud, British lawmakers said.
Read more: https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/02/02/big-tech-should-reimburse-the-victims-of-online-scams-british-lawmakers-say?source=Snapzu

World’s Most Admired Companies

Just as it dominates our economy, Big Tech now dominates Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation. For the third year in a row, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft rank first, second, and third, respectively, based on our poll of some 3,700 corporate executives, directors, and analysts. It’s Apple’s 15th straight year in the No. 1 spot, a fitting coronation for the world’s most valuable company. As a global pandemic limped into its third year, meanwhile, companies on the front lines of the medical battle gained new respect.
Read more: https://fortune.com/worlds-most-admired-companies/2022/?source=Snapzu

Man Who Duped Apple into Replacing Fake iPhones for Authentic Devices Worth $1 Million Convicted and Sentenced

A man has been sentenced to 26 months time served in prison for his involvement in a conspiracy to defraud Apple out of more than $1 million by tricking the company into replacing hundreds of fake iPhones with authentic handsets through its warranty program.
Read more: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/02/02/man-defrauded-apple-fake-iphone-scam/?source=Snapzu

Sony is still struggling with PS5 supply

Sony shipped just 3.9 million PlayStation 5 consoles in its all-important holiday quarter, a slight bump over the previous quarter’s figure of 3.3 million, demonstrating how the electronics giant is still struggling to meet demand during the ongoing global supply chain crunch. 17.3 million units in total have been shipped as of December 31st, nearly three million fewer than the PlayStation 4 had managed at the equivalent point after its release.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/2/22913870/sony-earnings-q3-2021-ps5-sales-vs-ps4?source=Snapzu

Regulators find Europe’s ad-tech industry acted unlawfully

After a years-long process, data protection officials across the European Union have ruled that Europe’s ad tech industry has been operating unlawfully. The decision, handed down by Belgium’s APD (.PDF) and agreed by regulators across the EU, found that the system underpinning the industry violated a number of principles of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). The Irish Council for Civil Liberties has declared victory in its protracted battle against the authority which administers much of the advertising industry on the continent: IAB Europe.
Read more: https://www.engadget.com/european-union-gdpr-ad-tech-unlawful-iccl-iab-europe-125735068.html?source=Snapzu