Apple iPhone 15 Plus model could receive a price cut, here's why

Apple iPhone 14 series was announced at the Far Out event earlier this year. The lineup has four new models. Much to the company's chagrin, the iPhone 14 Plus failed to garner popularity among iPhone fans. As a result, it has pretty disappointing sales.
Read more: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/apple-iphone-15-plus-model-could-receive-price-cut-heres-why-1710752?source=Snapzu

'Pharma Bro' Martin Shkreli advises Sam Bankman-Fried on potential prison time, saying he should prepare by listening to rap music and shaving his head

Disgraced FTX cofounder Sam Bankman-Fried was extradited to the US this month after being hit with eight criminal charges.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/martin-shkreli-offers-tips-sam-bankman-fried-prison-2022-12?source=Snapzu

Big Tech’s Big Flops of 2022

This was not a great year for Big Tech. In 2022, the economy slumped, stocks fell, inflation skyrocketed, and belts tightened. Silicon Valley was one of the hardest-hit places, partly because some of its companies had experienced such explosive and sustained growth for so long that it almost didn’t seem possible for that growth to stop or even slow down. And yet, here we are.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/recode/2022/12/27/23520906/amazon-apple-google-meta-streaming-big-tech-moonshots-goodbye?source=Snapzu

Apache Flink for Unbounded Data Streams

It's all about real-time processing speed, and on that score, Flink is hard to beat.
Read more: https://thenewstack.io/apache-flink-for-unbounded-data-streams/?source=Snapzu

Crypto craziness craps out – and about time too

Fintech, you're better than this. Time to concentrate on more helpful stuff
Read more: https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/23/crypto_craziness_craps_out/?source=Snapzu

The end of Netflix password sharing is nigh

The end of password sharing is coming to Netflix soon—and it will be a challenge for both viewers and the streaming giant. The company has put off this moment for years. Researchers inside Netflix Inc. identified password sharing as a major problem eating into subscriptions in 2019, people familiar with the situation say, but the company was worried about how to address it without alienating consumers. Then Covid lockdowns hit, bringing a wave of new subscribers, and the effort to scrutinize sharing petered out.
Read more: https://www.foxbusiness.com/entertainment/end-netflix-password-sharing-nigh?source=Snapzu

Amazon Has Conquered Christmas—but Its Reign May Be Ending

The retail giant mastered the mince pie and shoved its way into the holidays. But, it’s also had to cut back on its private-label products after poor sales.
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-mince-pies/?source=Snapzu

Welcome to the first ever McDonald's where you're served by robots—in Texas

McDonald's has begun testing its first-ever robot restaurant in Texas, sparking debate and intrigue in equal measure. In Fort Worth, Texas, the branch is fully automated and requires no human contact to order and pick up your favorite meal.
Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/first-ever-mcdonalds-served-robots-texas-1769116?source=Snapzu

The Copyright Industry Is About To Discover That There Are Hundreds Of Thousands Of Songs Generated By AI Already Available, Already Popular

You may have noticed the world getting excited about the capabilities of ChatGPT, a text-based AI chat bot. Similarly, some are getting quite worked up over generative AI systems that can turn text…
Read more: https://www.techdirt.com/2022/12/22/the-copyright-industry-is-about-to-discover-that-there-are-hundreds-of-thousands-of-songs-generated-by-ai-already-available-already-popular/?source=Snapzu

Ticketmaster’s Dark History

Just over 28 years ago, Taylor Swift was a precocious Montessori preschooler growing up on a Pennsylvania Christmas tree farm, and Eddie Vedder was the Most Important Musician in America, Kurt Cobain having bequeathed to him the (unwanted) title with his suicide that spring. Bill Clinton himself called Vedder to the White House to ask him for help with “messaging” around Cobain’s death, and the rock star in turn confided in the president that he was having trouble with a rapacious corporation named Ticketmaster...
Read more: https://prospect.org/power/ticketmasters-dark-history/?source=Snapzu

Porn, Piracy, Fraud: What Lurks Inside Google’s Black Box Ad Empire

Google’s ad business hides nearly all publishers it works with and where billions of ad dollars flow. We uncovered a network containing manga piracy, porn, fraud and disinformation.
Read more: https://www.propublica.org/article/google-display-ads-piracy-porn-fraud?source=Snapzu

Public Domain Day 2023

Works from 1927 are open to all! On January 1, 2023, copyrighted works from 1927 will enter the US public domain.
Read more: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2023/?source=Snapzu

New Skyscraper-Size Pig Farm Is a Mind-Blowing 26 Stories High

The biggest single-building pig farm in the world speaks to the dystopian nightmare that is animal agriculture.
Read more: https://mercyforanimals.org/blog/skyscraper-size-pig-farm/?source=Snapzu

U.S. authorities charge 8 social media influencers in securities fraud scheme

U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday said they have charged eight individuals in a securities fraud scheme, alleging they reaped about $114 million from by using Twitter and Discord to manipulate stocks.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-sec-charges-8-influencers-100-mln-stock-fraud-scheme-2022-12-14/?source=Snapzu

Breaking: SEC Charges Sam Bankman-Fried with Defrauding Investors

The SEC has filed charges against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the securities regulator said in a doc released Tuesday. The SEC accused SBF of orchestrating a years-long scheme to defraud investors who committed nearly $2 billion to the fallen crypto exchange.
Read more: https://tokenist.com/breaking-sec-charges-sam-bankman-fried-with-defrauding-investors/?source=Snapzu

Ticketmaster is in hot water — again — and facing a fine after an 'unprecedented' number of people were sold fake tickets to a Bad Bunny concert

The chaotic Bad Bunny concert comes as Ticketmaster has been under fire for its Taylor Swift ticketing debacle.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/ticketmaster-under-fire-faces-fine-selling-fake-bad-bunny-tickets-2022-12?source=Snapzu

Amazon Wants to Kill the Barcode

Exclusive: Amazon built a computer vision algorithm from scratch to identify products without barcodes to help robots ship products to you faster.
Read more: https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/amazon-wants-to-kill-the-barcode/?source=Snapzu

Not Your Keys, Not Your Bitcoin – FTX Was Selling Fake BTC to Its Users.

In the series “Not your Keys, Not your Bitcoin,” I call to the stand Sam Bankman-Fried. The now-infamous SBF who just turned FTX and Alameda into the biggest fiasco in cryptocurrency history! When a case like this breaks out, you are (unfortunately) never at the end of the (bad) surprises. That's what's happening right now for FTX, with new revelations that have just come to light.
Read more: https://inbitcoinwetrust.substack.com/p/not-your-keys-not-your-bitcoin-ftx?source=Snapzu

Tesla, GM facing 'a nightmare' in China, analyst says

As mainland China backs away from its zero-COVID policy and loosens restrictions, business optimism and a slight return to normalcy are welcome changes for citizens and investors. One large area of the Chinese economy that will be impacted is the manufacturing sector, and the auto industry in particular. China has the largest auto market in the world and sells by far and away the most EVs of any country.
Read more: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-gm-facing-a-nightmare-in-china-analyst-says-194750735.html?source=Snapzu

The quiet disappearance of the safe deposit box

Once revered as the safest way to store physical valuables, safe deposit boxes are now being phased out by major banks.
Read more: https://thehustle.co/the-quiet-disappearance-of-the-safe-deposit-box/?source=Snapzu

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried 'willing to testify' at panel hearing - tweet

FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried is willing to testify before the U.S. House Committee on Dec. 13, the cryptocurrency exchange's founder said in a tweet on Friday, as regulators investigate his role in the wake of its collapse.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-willing-testify-tweet-2022-12-09/?source=Snapzu

Kanye West's Yeezy Apparel fashion company owes $600,000 in unpaid tax to California with notices dating back two years, report says

Yeezy Apparel is also recorded as being in "good" standing, but tax-law experts told NBC that the tax notices indicate big problems.
Read more: https://www.businessinsider.com/kanye-west-owes-600000-unpaid-tax-yeezy-clothing-brand-2022-12?source=Snapzu

Apple and Ericsson put an end to patent lawsuits with new licensing deal

Apple and Ericsson have reached a licensing agreement that will put an end to a years-long, increasingly nasty legal battle between the two companies. As announced in a press release, the deal includes a “cross-license relating to patented cellular standard-essential technologies and grants certain other patent rights.”
Read more: https://9to5mac.com/2022/12/09/apple-ericsson-patent-lawsuit/?source=Snapzu

Huge win for privacy: Facebook tracking is illegal in Europe!

EU privacy regulators say Facebook and Instagram must not force users to agree to tracking by putting this requirement into their terms. This business model is illegal according to the GDPR.
Read more: https://tutanota.com/blog/posts/facebook-tracking-business-model-illegal-europe/?source=Snapzu

Google is bringing together its Waze and Maps teams as it pushes to reduce overlap

Google is merging the team it has working on the navigation app Waze into the same group that oversees Google Maps, the company has announced. The Wall Street Journal reports that the move is not expected to mark the end of Waze as a separate service, and no layoffs are planned as part of the reorganization. However, Waze CEO Neha Parikh is expected to leave the role after the transition, and the move is expected to reduce overlapping work, the WSJ notes.
Read more: https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/8/23499734/google-maps-waze-development-teams-combined-productivity?source=Snapzu

Uber fined $14m for lying to make you ditch cabs

Australia's Federal Court has fined Uber AU$21 million ($14 million) for engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct. Uber did so in two ways – one of which involved the offer it made in some parts of Australia to arrange rides in ye olde licensed taxis from within its app.
Read more: https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/07/uber_australia_fined_misleading_deception/?source=Snapzu

Peacock Paid Users Have Doubled in 2022 to 18 Million, Jeff Shell Says

Peacock has added another 3 million paid users since early October and now touts 18 million subscribers, double the 9 million with which it finished 2021, NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell told investors Monday morning. “That’s real subscribers paying us real American dollars,” Shell told the UBS TMT Conference.
Read more: https://www.nexttv.com/news/peacock-paid-users-have-doubled-in-2022-to-18-million-jeff-shell-says?source=Snapzu

Investing in Startups: What You Need to Know and Why You Should Consider It

If you’ve watched The Social Network, you may remember that billionaire Peter Thiel, a serial entrepreneur and successful venture capitalist, was one of the first outside investors in Facebook. Thiel invested $500,000 in 2004 for a 10.2% stake in Facebook.
Read more: https://altoalternativeinvestments.com/startups?source=Snapzu

The economy just doesn’t make sense anymore

How’s the economy doing? Depends where you look. Seriously.
Read more: https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2022/12/2/23486024/economy-inflation-jobs-report-gdp-stock-market-recession?source=Snapzu

Your Next House Could Be Made on an Assembly Line

Building homes—or at least pieces of them—in a factory could help address America's housing shortage.
Read more: https://time.com/6237782/modular-homes-affordability/?source=Snapzu

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Says He Can’t Account for Billions Sent to Alameda

FTX’s founder said he couldn’t explain what happened to billions of dollars that customers of his failed cryptocurrency exchange sent to the bank accounts of his trading firm.
Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-says-he-cant-account-for-billions-sent-to-alameda-11670107659?source=Snapzu

The failure of Amazon's Alexa shows Microsoft was right to kill Cortana

Microsoft Cortana, we barely knew ye. 2023 is looking to be a rough year in tech, with layoffs already hitting various major companies as forecasts predict recession almost across the entire world. A combination of inflationary effects of money printing through the pandemic, Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine, and even China's COVID-Zero lockdown policies — are all contributing to a perfect economic storm hitting practically everyone.
Read more: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/the-failure-of-amazons-alexa-shows-microsoft-was-right-to-kill-cortana?source=Snapzu

Startup backed by Tesla investor promises $300,000 flying car by 2025: 'This is not more complicated than a Toyota Corolla'

The promise of a future filled with flying cars is nothing new. For decades, futurists have touted the dream of your car lifting off and soaring above a traffic jam. So the most interesting part of a recent prototype announcement from Santa Clara, California-based Alef Aeronautics may not be the car itself, which Alef says will be able to take off into the air vertically and fly like a helicopter up to 110 miles on a single charge.
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/04/alef-aeronautics-startup-backed-by-tesla-investor-flying-car-by-2025.html?source=Snapzu