Sunday 30 April 2023

Google Now Offering Committed Use Discounts for RHEL/RHEL for SAP

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Google Now Offering Committed Use Discounts for RHEL/RHEL for SAP

Google Cloud announced the availability of committed use discounts (CUDs) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and RHEL for SAP.

CUDs can help cloud customers control their costs, especially those customers with predictable and consistent workloads. According to Google Cloud, CUDs can help RHEL customers save as much as 24% over pay-as-you-go pricing.

“Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Google Cloud provides a consistent foundation for hybrid cloud environments and a reliable, high-performance operating environment for applications and cloud infrastructure,” said Gunnar Hellekson, Vice President and General Manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Business Unit. “The introduction of committed use discounts for Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Google Cloud makes it even easier for customers to deploy on the world’s leading enterprise Linux platform to unlock greater business value in the cloud.”

Google says customers can save up to 20% on one-year commitments and up to 24% on three-year commitments.

Google says CUDs make sense for a lot of RHEL VM customers:

Based on our research, CUDs are a good fit for many Red Hat Enterprise Linux VMs, the majority of which run 24/7 workloads. When evaluating whether or not purchasing Red Hat Enterprise Linux CUD is a good choice for you, consider the following: Based on list prices for a one-year term, Red Hat Enterprise Linux CUDs can help you save on subscription costs if you utilize a Red Hat Enterprise Linux instance for ~80% or more of the time within the one year CUD term. For a three-year Red Hat Enterprise Linux CUD, you can start saving when a Red Hat Enterprise Linux instance runs for ~76% or more of the time. Additionally, remember that Red Hat Enterprise Linux CUDs automatically apply to all running VM instances within the same region and project. (However, one Red Hat Enterprise Linux CUD can only be applied to one VM instance at a time.)

Customers can find more information in Google’s “Purchasing commitments for licenses” documentation.

Google Now Offering Committed Use Discounts for RHEL/RHEL for SAP
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Microsoft Backs Right-to-Repair Legislation

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Microsoft Backs Right-to-Repair Legislation

Microsoft is throwing its weight behind right-to-repair legislation, making it one of the few largest tech companies to do so.

Like many Big Tech companies, Microsoft has a long history of fighting right-to-repair. Recently, however, Microsoft is changing its tune. According to a report in Grist, Microsoft threw its weight being the Fair Repair Act, a right-to-repair bill in Washington state.

Irene Plenefisch, Microsoft’s senior director of government affairs, sent the following email to Washington Senate’s Environment, Energy, and Technology Committee members:

“I am writing to state Microsoft’s support for E2SHB 1392,” also known as the Fair Repair Act, Plenefisch wrote in an email to the committee. “This bill fairly balances the interests of manufacturers, customers, and independent repair shops and in doing so will provide more options for consumer device repair.”

Grist goes on to report that Microsoft’s involvement is convincing other tech companies to follow suit and engage regulators and legislators in an effort to craft meaningful right-to-repair legislation.

“We are in the middle of more conversations with manufacturers being way more cooperative than before,” Nathan Proctor, who heads the U.S. Public Research Interest Group’s right-to-repair campaign, told Grist. “And I think Microsoft’s leadership and willingness to be first created that opportunity.”

Microsoft’s involvement could create an environment where customers once again have control over their own devices.

Microsoft Backs Right-to-Repair Legislation
Matt Milano



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From Fan to Critic: Jack Dorsey Not Happy With Elon Musk’s Twitter Stewardship

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From Fan to Critic: Jack Dorsey Not Happy With Elon Musk’s Twitter Stewardship

As Twitter stumbles from one controversy to the next, co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey has changed his tune on Elon Musk.

Shortly after Elon Musk began his on-again, off-again journey to buy Twitter, Dorsey came out in favor of Musk’s attempt, expressing his faith in his ability to help the company.

Fast-forward to mid-2023, and Dorsey has changed his tune, saying he doesn’t believe Musk “acted right.” According to TechCrunch, Dorsey was responding to a question from Bluesky user Jason Goldman, asking if Musk had been the “best possible [steward].”

Dorsey’s response was revealing and provided an opportunity to highlight how Bluesky, the new social media network he is backing, is different:

No. Nor do I think he acted right after realizing his timing was bad. Nor do I think the board should have forced the sale. It all went south. But it happened and all we can do now is build something to avoid that ever happening again. So I’m happy Jay and team and nostr devs exist and building it.

The revelation is quite the about-face and adds fuel to the fire of accusations that Musk is destroying Twitter from the inside.

From Fan to Critic: Jack Dorsey Not Happy With Elon Musk’s Twitter Stewardship
Matt Milano



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Microsoft Takes a Page From Linux, Will Add Rust to Windows Kernel

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Microsoft Takes a Page From Linux, Will Add Rust to Windows Kernel

Microsoft is working to add Rust to the Windows kernel, following the steps Linux has been taking since version 6.1 of its kernel.

Rust has become one of the most popular programming languages thanks to its advanced features. The language offers better performance and memory safety than many other popular options.

According to Thurrott, Microsoft VP David Weston announced the news this week.

“We’re in the crawl stage of crawl, walk, run of Rust in Windows,” Weston said at the Microsoft’s BlueHat IL 2023 conference. “We’re talking about one of the most complex engineering products on the planet. But our goal is to do this to improve security … So you will actually see Windows booting with Rust in the kernel in probably the next several weeks or months, which is really cool. The basic goal here is to convert some of these internal C++ data types into their Rust equivalents.”

Weston revealed that Microsoft had already rewritten 36,000 lines of the Windows kernel in Rust. The company has also written 152,000 lines of Rust code for DirectWrite Core Library proof of concept.

With Linux and Microsoft both adopting Rust, the language’s future looks brighter than ever.

Microsoft Takes a Page From Linux, Will Add Rust to Windows Kernel
Matt Milano



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Saturday 29 April 2023

Tencent Cloud Is Rolling Out Deepfakes-as-a-Service

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Tencent Cloud Is Rolling Out Deepfakes-as-a-Service

Tencent is taking deepfakes to a new level, rolling out deepfakes-as-a-service, and creating virtual humans for $145.

Deepfakes refer to the use of AI to create a virtual recreation of a real person. The technology has raised concerns across the spectrum since deepfakes could be used to wrongly implicate a person, smear their reputation, or mislead people.

Where others see the need for caution, Tencent sees an opportunity to make money. According to The Register, the company is leveraging its cloud-based AI models to sell deepfake creation as a service. The process only requires three minutes of live-action video, as well as 100 spoken sentences. A mere 24 hours later and the customer has a deepfake.

Tencent told the outlet that it “hopes to build an automated ‘AI+ Digital Intelligent Human Factory’ and rely on a self-service one-stop platform for production, sales and service.”

As The Register points out, the company may face regulatory challenges from Beijing. China is notorious for its love/hate relationship with its tech industry. On the one hand, Beijing wants its tech companies to be the best in the world. On the other hand, Beijing often engages in crackdowns on companies and industries that it believes have gained too much power. Given the implication of the technology, deepfakes have already drawn notable scrutiny from Chinese regulators.

Tencent’s plans may never see the light of day. If they do, however, it could help usher in a whole new era of misinformation.

Tencent Cloud Is Rolling Out Deepfakes-as-a-Service
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Microsoft’s High-Stakes Strategy to Convert Google Bard Users

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Microsoft’s High-Stakes Strategy to Convert Google Bard Users

Microsoft is engaging in a high-stakes strategy to convert Google Bard users to Bing AI, one that relies on tactics the company has been criticized for.

Microsoft’s Bing AI, based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Bard are two of the leading AIs vying for the same market. Microsoft jumped to a commanding lead, but the company is working to capitalize on it and gain ground against Google’s search dominance.

Part of that strategy involves showing a message to Microsoft Edge users when they visit Bard, asking if they would like to compare the results with Bing.

See also: Microsoft Angering Users With Overly Aggressive Edge Ads

Vitor de Lucca tweeted about the strategy with screenshots:

This isn’t the first time Microsoft has included advertising and other promotional messages in its products. In fact, the company has been steadily increasing the number of ads for its products throughout Windows, a practice that has been universally panned by critics and users alike.

It’s possible Microsoft’s strategy for combating Google Bard may work out, but it’s also possible it could alienate users and drive them into Google’s open arms.

Microsoft’s High-Stakes Strategy to Convert Google Bard Users
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Italy and ChatGPT Bury the Hatchet

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Italy and ChatGPT Bury the Hatchet

Italy and ChatGPT have buried the hatchet and made up after OpenAI addressed privacy concerns that led to a ban.

Italy’s privacy watchdog banned the popular AI platform from being used in the country over concerns about how personal data was handled. The decision was controversial, with the Deputy PM saying the decision showed “too much zeal.”

OpenAI has delivered on a promise to address the concerns, and Italy has unblocked ChatGPT as a result, according to AP News.

“ChatGPT is available again to our users in Italy,” San Francisco-based OpenAI said by email. “We are excited to welcome them back, and we remain dedicated to protecting their privacy.”

The news comes on the heels of OpenAI introducing a number of privacy controls to ChatGPT.

While the corporate world is enamored with ChatGPT, and AI in general, many have a tendency to forget that large AI models are trained on vast amounts of data. Where that data comes from and what happens to it after the fact continues to be a source of debate for individuals, corporations, and regulators alike.

Italy and ChatGPT Bury the Hatchet
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Friday 28 April 2023

The Current Windows 10 Release Will Be the Last Major Update

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The Current Windows 10 Release Will Be the Last Major Update

Microsoft has closed the curtain on future Windows 10 updates, saying the current 22H2 release is the last major one.

In a blog post outlining Microsoft’s Windows roadmap, the company says there will be no more major updates to Windows 10:

As documented on the Windows 10 Enterprise and Education and Windows 10 Home and Pro lifecycle pages, Windows 10 will reach end of support on October 14, 2025. The current version, 22H2, will be the final version of Windows 10, and all editions will remain in support with monthly security update releases through that date. Existing LTSC releases will continue to receive updates beyond that date based on their specific lifecycles.

For organizations that want to remain on Windows 10 as long as they can, the company recommends updating to the 22H2 release as soon as possible to continue to get the latest security and bug fixes.

  • We highly encourage you to transition to Windows 11 now as there won’t be any additional Windows 10 feature updates.
  • If you and/or your organization must remain on Windows 10 for now, please update to Windows 10, version 22H2 to continue receiving monthly security update releases through October 14, 2025. See how you can quickly do this via a servicing enablement package in How to get the Windows 10 2022 Update.

The Current Windows 10 Release Will Be the Last Major Update
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Salesforce Community Sites Are Leaking Private Data

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Salesforce Community Sites Are Leaking Private Data

A configuration issue is causing Salesforce Community sites, including those of banks and healthcare companies, to leak data.

KrebsOnSecurity first reported on an issue that was discovered by security researcher Charan Akiri, who wrote a program to find vulnerable Salesforce sites.

Salesforce Community is a product that makes it easy for companies to set up a website. As Krebs points out, websites can be set up to require authentication or allow guest access. In many cases, however, administrators are mistakenly giving guest users access to information that should require authorization.

“My team is frustrated by the permissive nature of the platform,” said Scott Carbee, Vermont’s Chief Information Security Officer.

Carbee says the pandemic, and the hurried nature of suddenly setting up plethora of online services, exacerbated the problem.

“During the pandemic, we were largely standing up tons of applications, and let’s just say a lot of them didn’t have the full benefit of our dev/ops process,” Carbee said. “In our case, we didn’t have any native Salesforce developers when we had to suddenly stand up all these sites.”

Unfortunately, Vermont is not alone in dealing with the issue. Akiri told Krebs that he found hundreds of organizations with misconfigured Salesforce Community sites that were leaking data. That number is by no means the full scope of the problem, as Akira has been reluctant to delve further as a result of the response he has received.

“In January and February 2023, I contacted government organizations and several companies, but I did not receive any response from these organizations,” Akiri said. “To address the issue further, I reached out to several CISOs on LinkedIn and Twitter. As a result, five companies eventually fixed the problem. Unfortunately, I did not receive any responses from government organizations.”

Salesforce says the issue is not a vulnerability but the result of a misconfiguration.

“As previously communicated to all Experience Site and Sites customers, we recommend utilizing the Guest User Access Report Package to assist in reviewing access control permissions for unauthenticated users,” reads a Salesforce advisory that was released in September 2022. “Additionally, we suggest reviewing the following Help article, Best Practices and Considerations When Configuring the Guest User Profile.”

Administrators responsible for Salesforce Community sites should read Krebs’ report in its entirety and ensure their sites are configured properly.

Salesforce Community Sites Are Leaking Private Data
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Walmart Is Using AI to Negotiate With Vendors

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Walmart Is Using AI to Negotiate With Vendors

Walmart is relying on AI to help it negotiate prices with vendors, revealing some surprising insights.

AI is the new darling of the tech industry, with OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google leading the way. Walmart may not be the first company that springs to mind in the context of AI, but Bloomberg is reporting that the retailer is using it for vendor negotiations. The company has tapped Pactum AI, using its chatbot for the process.

“We set the requirements and then, at the end, it tells us the outcome,” says Darren Carithers, Walmart’s senior vice president for international operations.

Carithers went on to tell Bloomberg that the AI has reduced negotiation times from weeks or months to mere days. What’s more, the bot has saved an average of 3% on contracts, with a 68% success rate in reaching deals.

Perhaps most surprisingly, three-quarters of the company’s suppliers prefer negotiating with the AI.

“Some really like it and are like, ‘This is the best way to do it,’” Carithers continued. “But I would relate that to people using self-checkout in stores. Some customers love it, but guess what: Some customers want to go to a manned checkout and see a person.”

The AI is currently only being used to negotiate contracts for equipment the company uses, such as shopping carts, and not goods being sold on shelves. Given the success Walmart is experiencing, however, it’s likely only a matter of time before AI negotiators are tasked with more responsibility.

Walmart Is Using AI to Negotiate With Vendors
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Intel’s Latest Earnings Were a Bloodbath

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Intel’s Latest Earnings Were a Bloodbath

The hits keep on coming for Intel, with the latest earnings report delivering the worst quarterly loss in company history.

Intel reported $11.7 billion in revenue in its first quarter, a 36% decline year-over-year. Losses per share came in at $0.04 adjusted, a 133% annual decline and the worst quarterly performance in the company’s history, according to CNBC. Despite the historic pounding, the results were actually slightly better than analysts expected.

“We delivered solid first-quarter results, representing steady progress with our transformation,” said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. “We hit key execution milestones in our data center roadmap and demonstrated the health of the process technology underpinning it. While we remain cautious on the macroeconomic outlook, we are focused on what we can control as we deliver on IDM 2.0: driving consistent execution across process and product roadmaps and advancing our foundry business to best position us to capitalize on the $1 trillion market opportunity ahead.”

“We exceeded our first-quarter expectations on the top and bottom line, and continued to be disciplined on expense management as part of our commitment to drive efficiencies and cost savings,” David Zinsner, Intel CFO. “At the same time, we are prioritizing the investments needed to advance our strategy and establish an internal foundry model, one of the most consequential steps we are taking to deliver on IDM 2.0.”

Moving forward, CNBC reports that Intel expects to lose $0.04 per share in the second quarter as well, on revenue of $12 billion. Analysts were expecting earnings of $0.01 per share on revenue of $11.75.

Intel has been trying to recapture its spot as the world’s top semiconductor maker, bringing Gelsinger in as CEO to accomplish the job. Once the undisputed king of the industry, Intel has faced growing challenges from TSMC and AMD and has struggled to remain competitive with its rivals’ technical accomplishments.

While Gelsinger has helped Intel make significant progress, the company still has a long way to go.

Intel’s Latest Earnings Were a Bloodbath
Matt Milano



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Telegram May Leave Brazil Over Court Ruling

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Telegram May Leave Brazil Over Court Ruling

On the heels of a Telegram being banned in Brazil, founder Pavel Durov has said the app may pull out of the country altogether.

A court in Brazil banned Telegram over neo-Nazi groups using the app or communication. The groups have engaged in violent behavior, much of it against children. Authorities wanted Telegram to hand over information on the groups’ members but accused the company of only providing data on a single administrator for one of the groups.

In response to the ban, Durov says the company may throw in the towel in Brazill:

Telegram’s mission is to preserve privacy and freedom of speech around the world.

In cases where local laws go against this mission or impose technologically unfeasible requirements, we sometimes have to leave such markets. In the past, countries like China, Iran and Russia have banned Telegram due to our principled stance on the matter of human rights. Such events, while unfortunate, are still preferable to the betrayal of our users and the beliefs we were founded on.

In Brazil, a court requested data that is technologically impossible for us to obtain. We are appealing the decision and are looking forward to the final resolution. No matter the cost, we will stand up for our users in Brazil and their right to private communication.

As we pointed out in our previous coverage, Telegram does not enable end-to-end encryption (E2EE) by default, leaving it to users to enable the option if they want it.

The fact that Durov said that it “is technologically impossible” to give the court the data it wants would seem to indicate that the groups did have E2EE enabled. If so, Telegram is facing the same issue Signal, Apple, and other platforms using E2EE have faced.

Only time will tell how the issue in Brazil plays out, but Telegram users may soon be out of luck.

Telegram May Leave Brazil Over Court Ruling
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Thursday 27 April 2023

Lyft’s Layoffs Will Impact 1,072 Employees

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Lyft’s Layoffs Will Impact 1,072 Employees

Lyft is moving forward with layoffs it announced last week, saying it is cutting more than a quarter of the company’s jobs.

Lyft’s latest round of layoffs comes just months after it laid off 13% of its staff in November. When announcing the news last week, CEO David Risher said: “We need to be a faster, flatter company where everyone is closer to our riders and drivers so we can deliver on this purpose.”

In a filing with the SEC, Lyft says it plans to lay off 1,072 employees in addition to scaling back hiring.

The plan involves the termination of approximately 1,072 employees, representing 26% of the Company’s employees. The Company has also decided to scale back hiring and has eliminated over 250 open positions.

The company expects the layoffs to cost “approximately $41 million to $47 million related to severance and employee benefits in the second quarter of 2023.”

Lyft’s Layoffs Will Impact 1,072 Employees
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Brave Search Is Now 100% Independent, With An API Coming Soon

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Brave Search Is Now 100% Independent, With An API Coming Soon

Brave Search has achieved 100% search independence, removing the last Bing results in favor of its own index.

Brave is one of the newest entries in the search engine market, made by the company that creates the popular web browser of the same name. Brave Search has a focus on privacy, much like the web browser. Unlike other privacy-focused search engines, Brave has its own web index that has powered the bulk of its results. In contrast, others often return results from Bing or Google and simply strip out those sites’ trackers.

According to a company blog post, it has achieved 100% independence, eliminating a small percentage of search results that still came from Bing.

Every Web search result seen in Brave Search is now served by our own index. We’ve removed all search API calls to Bing, which previously represented about 7% of query results.

The company goes on to say that, at most, Brave used content from third parties in roughly 13% of queries when the search engine first launched. Since then, it has steadily improved its own index and reduced the number of outside calls.

Brave says users can now enjoy 100% independent, privacy-persevering results. For those that need it, however, it is still possible to enable Google Fallback Mixing, a feature that anonymously checks Google and combines relevant results with Brave’s own.

By default, Brave Search users will now receive 100% of results from the Brave Index, giving users fully independent results. As always, our results will preserve user privacy. And this independence does not come at the expense of quality: Over the past several months, the Search team has drastically improved Brave Search’s ability to answer nuanced, long-tail queries.

For users who want it, Google Fallback mixing will continue to be an option. Users can continue to support the growth of the index and results quality by opting into the Web Discovery Project, and submitting feedback in cases where we should improve. And users can use Goggles to re-rank and filter results from the Brave Search index.

The company is also planning to release a Brave API.

In continuing our mission to offer alternatives to Big Tech, Brave is planning to release the Brave Search API. Through it, developers and companies will be able to build search experiences that compete on quality with Big Tech. Those interested should stay tuned for more details, or contact us at bizdev@brave.com.

Brave has quickly matured as a viable competitor to Google and Bing, even incorporating a very useful AI-powered Summarizer. This latest development should help the search engine differentiate itself even more.

Brave Search Is Now 100% Independent, With An API Coming Soon
Matt Milano



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Google Will Bring E2EE to Google Authenticator Sync

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Google Will Bring E2EE to Google Authenticator Sync

Google has confirmed it plans to bring end-to-end encryption (E2EE) to Google Authenticator sync, a noticeable omission from the product’s launch.

Google recently upgraded Authenticator to include sync functionality, giving users the ability to sync their two-factor authentication (2FA) tokens across their devices. E2EE was noticeably absent, however, raising serious issues about the service’s security.

Google’s Christiaan Brand has addressed the concerns, reassuring users that E2EE is planned.

It’s nice to know that Google plans on implementing E2EE in Authenticator’s sync functionality, but it should have been included from day one. E2EE protects sensitive data so that no one can access and use it, even if the server it resides on is compromised and the data stolen.

Given the importance and security implications of 2FA tokens, it’s hard to imagine what Google was thinking releasing the sync functionality without E2EE.

Google Will Bring E2EE to Google Authenticator Sync
Matt Milano



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Dropbox Laying Off 500 Employees Citing ‘the AI Era of Computing’

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Dropbox Laying Off 500 Employees Citing ‘the AI Era of Computing’

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston announced a round of layoffs, blaming slowing growth and artificial intelligence.

In a message to employees, Houston made it clear that the company “is stable and profitable.” He broke the decision to lay off 16% of the company’s workforce for two main reasons:

First, while our business is profitable, our growth has been slowing. Part of this is due to the natural maturation of our existing businesses, but more recently, headwinds from the economic downturn have put pressure on our customers and, in turn, on our business. As a result, some investments that used to deliver positive returns are no longer sustainable.

Second, and more consequentially, the AI era of computing has finally arrived. We’ve believed for many years that AI will give us new superpowers and completely transform knowledge work. And we’ve been building towards this future for a long time, as this year’s product pipeline will demonstrate.

Houston goes on to say that, when it comes to AI, the company needs “to act with urgency to seize it,” while also acknowledging that other investments the company has made have limited future potential.

In the meantime, Houston assured employees that everyone impacted by the layoffs would receive an invite to a 1:1 meeting with their team leader within 30 minutes. The company is offering 16 weeks of severance pay, giving employees the option of keeping their company devices for personal use, offering job placement services, and more.

Dropbox Laying Off 500 Employees Citing ‘the AI Era of Computing’
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Meta Wins Antitrust Case Brought by States

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Meta Wins Antitrust Case Brought by States

Meta has scored an important victory, winning the antitrust case brought against it by a coalition of state attorneys general.

Some 48 states and territories sued Meta in an effort to roll back the company’s largest acquisitions, such as Instagram and WhatsApp. The judge in the original case dismissed the lawsuit, saying the plaintiffs “failed to plead enough facts to plausibly establish a necessary element… that Facebook has monopoly power in the market for personal social networking services.”

According to TechCrunch, the appeals court has also ruled in favor of Meta, saying the states’ case was “not only odd, but old.” The court also countered the states’ claims that Meta’s actions had hurt innovation, saying the lawsuit “concerns an industry that, even on the States’ allegations, has had rapid growth and innovation with no end in sight.”

As TC points out, the FTC, which was involved in the original suit, was allowed to amend its case by the lower court. As a result, its case can continue moving forward. In its statement welcoming its win over the states, Meta vowed to continue fighting the FTC’s claims.

“As the Court of Appeals rightly recognized, this case fundamentally mischaracterized the vibrant competitive ecosystem in which we operate,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement. “In affirming the dismissal of this case, the court noted that this enforcement action was ‘odd’ because we compete in an industry that is experiencing ‘rapid growth and innovation with no end in sight.’ Moving forward, Meta will defend itself vigorously against the FTC’s distortion of antitrust laws and attacks on an American success story that are contrary to the interests of people and businesses who value our services,” they added.

Meta Wins Antitrust Case Brought by States
Matt Milano



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Amazon Kills Off Its Halo Health Division

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Amazon Kills Off Its Halo Health Division

Amazon is continuing its streamlining efforts, killing off its Halo health division, according to a new report.

The Verge has learned, via an internal email, that Amazon is shuttering Halo, citing “significant headwinds.”

“We have made the difficult decision to wind down the Halo program, which will result in role reductions,” Melissa Cha, Amazon’s VP of smart home and health, told staff in an email. “More recently, Halo has faced significant headwinds, including an increasingly crowded segment and an uncertain economic environment. Although our customers love many aspects of Halo, we must prioritize resources and maximize benefits to customers and the long-term health of the business.”

The company plans to wind down its operations in the coming months, and is discontinuing all Halo hardware.

“We continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments,” Amazon spokesperson Kristy Schmidt told The Verge. “We recently made the difficult decision to stop supporting Amazon Halo effective July 31, 2023. We are incredibly proud of the invention and hard work that went into building Halo on behalf of our customers, and our priorities are taking care of our customers and supporting our employees.”

Amazon has already reassured customers they will receive refunds:

We understand this news may be disappointing for you. In the coming weeks, Amazon will fully refund purchase(s) made in the preceding 12 months of Amazon Halo View, Amazon Halo Band, Amazon Halo Rise, and Amazon Halo accessory bands. In addition, any unused prepaid Halo subscriptions fees will be refunded to your original payment method. If you have a paid subscription, as of today you will no longer be charged the monthly subscription fee. You do not need to take any additional steps.

Amazon Kills Off Its Halo Health Division
Matt Milano



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Wednesday 26 April 2023

Microsoft’s iMessage Support Comes to Windows 11

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Microsoft’s iMessage Support Comes to Windows 11

Microsoft has rolled out support for iMessage to Windows 11, via Phone Link for iOS.

Microsoft announced plans in March to bring Phone Link support to iOS, giving Windows users the ability to integrate iMessage with Windows 11. The company is now rolling the feature out globally:

Today, we are excited to announce that Microsoft Phone Link for iOS on Windows 11 is beginning to rollout to our global audience in 39 languages across 85 markets. We recently announced that Windows 11 was expanding our Phone Link feature to enable the connection between a Windows 11 PC and an iOS mobile device with the goal of removing barriers between your phone and PC and making it easier to connect to the people you care about most.

The feature will bring to iPhone users one that Android users have enjoyed for some time:

With the ability to now make this PC/iOS Phone connection, we hope our Windows 11 customers will never have to worry about missing an important phone call or text while focusing on their Windows PC. Once enabled by the Windows 11 customer, Phone Link for iOS will offer basic iOS support for calls, messages and access to contacts. This means if your phone is tucked away during a presentation or focus time, you’ll receive notifications on your Windows PC and can choose which action to take – all on your Windows 11 PC. Need access to your iPhone® photos on your PC? Our iCloud® integration with Photos makes this a simple process – all within the Photos app in Windows 11.

Microsoft’s iMessage Support Comes to Windows 11
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Dropbox Replay, Video Collaboration Tool, Is Now Live

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Dropbox Replay, Video Collaboration Tool, Is Now Live

Dropbox has made its video collaboration tool, Dropbox Replay, available to the public following feedback from beta testers.

Dropbox Replay is designed to make it easier for teams to collaborate, give feedback on, and sign off on video projects. Dropbox says the tool rose out of the need to better manage an ever-growing dependence on videos, according to a company blog post:

Over the past few years, video became an integral part of our daily lives. Research shows that the average number of online video hours watched grew from 10.5 hours per week in 2018 to 19 in 2022. Even at Dropbox, video is one of the fastest-growing content types on our platform.

For many freelancers and small teams who regularly work with video, organizing and managing all the feedback and approvals from coworkers and clients dispersed across time zones can be a time-consuming chore. In fact, many professionals tell us they struggle to gather feedback asynchronously on their video projects.

The company took feedback from early testers to improve the tool and make it even better:

In response to customer feedback, we’re adding new features to alleviate this pain point and releasing Dropbox Replay to general availability today. With Replay, you can fast-track video, image, and audio review and approvals—all in one place. Its patented live review feature lets collaborators watch a video simultaneously and see markups and comments in real time, so teams feel more connected, wherever they are.

By enabling you to comment on a specific frame or time range and organize all versions of your assets in one place, Replay centralizes creative reviews while keeping your team and clients aligned throughout the process.

The new tool integrates with some of the most popular video editing tools on the market, including Adobe Premiere Pro, Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve, LumaFusion, and WeVideo, with Apple Final Cut Pro support coming soon.

Customers, such as the National Rugby League, are already singing the tools’ praises:

“We use Replay for our content that requires lots of feedback and iterations, like campaigns with our players and commercial marketing materials. When you get down to the evil deadlines that rule our lives, it’s nice to get everyone together and share our feedback in one place.” – Rachel Jedwood, Production Officer at National Rugby League

Blackmagic Design, the creators of DaVinci Resolve, were equally impressed:

“Since the pandemic, I’ve seen how the creative industry continues to adapt to today’s new working models around video collaboration. Reducing the amount of time spent switching between editing and review tools is key to delivering projects to clients sooner. That’s why we’re excited to expand access to quality collaboration tools for video creators around the world through our Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve integration with Dropbox Replay.” – Dan May, President at Blackmagic Design

Customers can try out the new tool at https://dropbox.com/replay

Dropbox Replay, Video Collaboration Tool, Is Now Live
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Cloudguy: Sign Out Of and Reset All Amazon Devices

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Cloudguy: Sign Out Of and Reset All Amazon Devices

A well-known security expert advises users to sign out of their Amazon devices and reset their authorization keys.

Dick Morrell, known as “Cloudguy,” has significant tech and security credentials. He formerly worked at Red Hat, co-founded SmoothWall, was the director of Cloud Security Alliance, and was the CTO of Gartner Group. As a result, When Morrell gives a dire security warning, users ignore him at their peril.

Posting to Mastodon, Morrell says users should sign out of all their Amazon devices:

For those who trust me:

Goto your Amazon account, sign out of all your devices, everything, everywhere all your Echos (yes I know it’s a pain), reset your password, delete 2FA and any tokens and reset them. Now.

That doesn’t include Fido / Yubikeys but does include Auth tokens.

Do it now.

As much a pain as it is to reset Echo and all smart devices, trust me, please do it.

I can’t tell you more yet, but I am being ethical and you need to actually realise I have a clue.

It’s been a scary day

Despite being pressed by other users to elaborate, Morrell refused to give much more detail, indicating it would irresponsible to do so. The only other detail he gave indicated that whatever security issue he found was the result of ‘a retail company pretending to understand security.’

Am being ethical and responsible.

Anyone who knows me knows how seriously I take security. I had to wade through 2Gb plus of event data and JSON files today. What I found is a siloed retail company pretending to understand end user security

As much a pain as it may seem to go to your Amazon security settings and sign out of all devices

Please

Do it

Right now

Yes it’s a pain. Yet it’s a ball ache. Remake your 2FA Auth tokens and when I can go public we will just laugh nervously

We will be monitoring this story and updating it as more information becomes available. In the meantime, it’s probably a good idea to do as Morrell says.

Cloudguy: Sign Out Of and Reset All Amazon Devices
Matt Milano



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San Francisco Real Estate Gets a Boost From SAP

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San Francisco Real Estate Gets a Boost From SAP

San Francisco’s tech real estate market has taken one hit after another, but SAP is making a welcome appearance.

According to SF Gate, SAP plans to open a “30,000-square-foot office in SoMa on Thursday.” The new office space will house 500 of the company’s 3,500 Bay Area employees.

“San Francisco is the capital of the tech industry and one of the top global markets for talent,” said Yaad Oren, the managing director of SAP Labs US. “It is a vital region. SAP is doubling down on our commitment to this epicenter of innovation with our newest office and this next-generation approach to work.”

“We’re helping deliver the promise of an intelligent, sustainable enterprise with our customers by nourishing relationships with the top technology firms associated with the Silicon Valley,” Oren added.

The announcement is a welcome one for San Francisco as a number of companies have closed or sub-leased their offices in the wake of the pandemic. As more employees have adopted remote and hybrid work, there’s no longer the demand for office space that there once was.

SAP’s investment in San Francisco could well spur other companies to return.

San Francisco Real Estate Gets a Boost From SAP
Matt Milano



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History Repeats Itself: The Chevy Bolt’s Days Are Over

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History Repeats Itself: The Chevy Bolt’s Days Are Over

GM is ending production of its popular line of Bolt EVs, including the Chevy Bolt and the Chevy Bolt EUV.

GM has a controversial history with EVs, with many customers still not forgiving the company for killing off the Chevy Volt. This company is now ending another popular EV, according to TechCrunch. In fact, not only is the Bolt line GM’s most popular EV, but it’s also one of the few affordable options available to consumers.

The company is certainly not abandoning the EV market but pivoting to larger, more expensive models, such as the GMC Hummer and Cadillac Lyriq. Both are based on GM’s Ultium architecture, sporting a new and improved battery design, according to TC.

In the meantime, CEO Mary Barra says the company will retool its Orion, Michigan factory, where the Bolt is currently made, to make the company’s EV trucks. The Bolt phase-out is planned for the end of 2023.

History Repeats Itself: The Chevy Bolt’s Days Are Over
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Microsoft Beats Analysts’ Expectations on Strong Cloud and AI

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Microsoft Beats Analysts’ Expectations on Strong Cloud and AI

Microsoft turned in a solid quarter, beating analysts’ estimates on strong AI and cloud computing performance.

The company reported revenue of $52.9 billion, an increase of 7% over the year-ago quarter. Operating income came in at $22.4 billion, an increase of 10%, and net income was $18.3 billion, an increase of 9%.

CEO Satya Nadella credited the company’s AI and cloud endeavors for boosting the quarter.

“The world’s most advanced AI models are coming together with the world’s most universal user interface – natural language – to create a new era of computing,” said Nadella. “Across the Microsoft Cloud, we are the platform of choice to help customers get the most value out of their digital spend and innovate for this next generation of AI.”

The company’s Intelligent Cloud revenue came in at $22.1 billion, representing a 16% increase, while server products and cloud services revenue were up 17%. Azure was the big highlight, with it and other cloud services revenue up 27%.

LinkedIn was another bright spot for the company, with revenue increasing by 8%.

“Focused execution by our sales teams and partners in this dynamic environment resulted in Microsoft Cloud revenue of $28.5 billion, up 22% (up 25% in constant currency) year-over-year,” said Amy Hood, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Microsoft.

Microsoft Beats Analysts’ Expectations on Strong Cloud and AI
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Google Play Store Now Has Search Screen Ads

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Google Play Store Now Has Search Screen Ads

Proving that it’s an ad company at its core, Google is adding (no pun intended) ads to Google Play Store search results.

First reported by journalist Mishaal Rahman, Android users are seeing ads in-app search results in the play store.

As Rahman goes on to point out, Google has been testing this for a few months, but the company is clearly expanding the “feature,” including more information in the ads as well.

Google may be known for many different things — search, cloud, Android, and more — but at its heart, the company is an advertising company. It’s probably only a matter of time until ads show up in more parts of Android.

Google Play Store Now Has Search Screen Ads
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Tuesday 25 April 2023

Salesforce Cracks Down on Overtime

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Salesforce Cracks Down on Overtime

Salesforce is cracking down on overtime, tasking management with addressing any employees that log too much.

Like many tech companies, Salesforce is working to cut costs and increase efficiency. According to Business Insider, the company is cracking down on overtime as one of the steps it’s taking.

Employees must obtain management pre-approval if they plan to work more than three hours of overtime in a week. If a worker consistently racks up overtime, managers will speak with the employee to find out why. Logging ten or more hours will get senior management involved.

Despite some confusion surrounding them, the company maintains they are long-standing guidelines:

“These guidelines are not new. They’ve been in place for more than three years,” a spokesperson for Salesforce told Insider.

Salesforce Cracks Down on Overtime
Matt Milano



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Microsoft Edge Is Sending All the URLs You Visit to Bing

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Microsoft Edge Is Sending All the URLs You Visit to Bing

Microsoft Edge appears to have major privacy flaw, sending all URLs a person visits to the company’s search engine.

First spotted by Reddit user hackermchackface, the issue appears to be related to Edge’s follow creator feature. In their explanation, hackermchackface described the mechanism:

The recent Edge Version 112.0.1722.34 and later has made a change to the behaviour of the optional, but on by default Privacy feature: Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge.

In prior versions, this feature seems to only apply to small subset of websites – I have identified Youtube and Pinterest affected so far. When visiting subpages of this site, the complete URL of the page you are visiting is submitted to Bing as the mediaURL parameter…

Fortunately, as they go on to explain, it’s relatively easy to address the issue:

This is a warning to disable the Privacy feature: Show suggestions to follow creators in Microsoft Edge, especially in a corporate environment that may expose sensitive date in the internal URLs visited by users on the network. The GPO / ADMX EdgeFollowEnabled can supposedly be used for this.

Hopefully, Microsoft will issue a patch that fixes this bug permanently.

Microsoft Edge Is Sending All the URLs You Visit to Bing
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WhatsApp Brings Multi-Phone Support

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WhatsApp Brings Multi-Phone Support

WhatsApp has announced multi-phone support, implementing one of the most requested features for the messaging app.

While WhatsApp has supported using a computer or tablet in conjunction with a smartphone, WhatsApp accounts have been limited to a single smartphone at a time. In a blog post, the company says it has added the feature and is rolling it out globally:

Today, we’re improving our multi-device offering further by introducing the ability to use the same WhatsApp account on multiple phones.

A feature highly requested by users, now you can link your phone as one of up to four additional devices, the same as when you link with WhatsApp on web browsers, tablets and desktops. Each linked phone connects to WhatsApp independently, ensuring that your personal messages, media, and calls are end-to-end encrypted, and if your primary device is inactive for a long period, we automatically log you out of all companion devices.

WhatsApp on Multiple Phones – Credit WhatsApp

The new feature will allow users to easily switch between devices without needing to log out and log in on the secondary phones:

Linking phones as companion devices makes messaging easier. Now you can switch between phones without signing out and pick up your chats where you left off. Or if you’re a small business owner, additional employees are now able to respond to customers directly from their phones under the same WhatsApp Business account.

The company says the update should roll out to everyone within the coming weeks.

WhatsApp Brings Multi-Phone Support
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Commercial Real Estate and its Altered Path

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Commercial Real Estate and its Altered Path

Countless industries and areas of life saw change varying from small tweaks to entire destruction following the pandemic. One very broad industry that saw a lot of change was that of real estate. The pandemic exposed the absolute necessity of some buildings and forms of real estate while others started to dwindle. The market today is worth trillions of dollars, but with bumpy waters ahead it’s hard to say exactly where it will end up.

What’s Happened to the Office

At the heart of the change to real estate is the changing role of office spaces. When one imagines a place like New York there’s nothing more prominent than the countless skyscrapers. Historically, many of these buildings, if not have a majority, have been a form of office space. There are many types of commercial real estate, ranging from retail, to multifamily, to special purpose, to office space. Office space in particular is seeing a unique drop in prices and vacancies. 

In San Francisco, for example, the vacancy rate has gone up nearly 10% from pre-pandemic to 2022. All across America people are spending less time in their office, amounting to a 25% to 35% drop. This has created a 15% drop in demand for office space, something that, in cities like New York, has been devastating. Office occupancies, not vacancies, have rested at a 47% high in New York. The majority of office spaces are vacant and it’s hurting the industry in New York badly.

As 2023 continues, New York real estate sales could drop 15.9% from 2022. This just goes to show how devastated at least one region can be by the pandemic changes. Although this is not to say that all aspects of real estate are in danger. Housing, for example, is actually ever in demand. It’s actually so in demand that landlords in bigger cities are considering turning vacant offices into residential units. 

Multi-family homes, a type of commercial real estate mentioned briefly earlier, is also incredibly in demand. While apartment complexes are fairly common, the demand for suburban homes continues to grow year after year. Hotels are interestingly also on an upswing, likely due to the dropping of pandemic restrictions over time. 

Commercial Real Estate’s Resilience

Two of the most resilient industries in modern America are data centers and industrial real estate. Industrial land is in demand with very little land being sold that can house such large facilities. This means it’s one of the few parts of real estate that actually are in a low-land high-demand imbalance. Industry is something that only grows with the population and in a similar manner to housing it continues to grow in demand.

Data centers on the other hand are a byproduct of the modern technological industry. Tech has rapidly become one of the most fruitful areas of investment and it’s not a secret. Data centers are still being created rapidly to account for the rapid influx of corporations that rely on them. This is still challenging, as is industrial real estate and more typical housing. 

In Conclusion

Today, interest rates are up, investors are scared, although the market is still thriving. It’s an uncertain time in real estate as certain forms of real estate dwindle and others prosper. The path moving forward is uncertain, while some things like housing and data centers will always be needed. It’s hard to say if office spaces will bounce back, or if industry will continue to be exported out of America. Real estate is a surprisingly complex issue, what matters, ultimately, is staying informed.

Orange County Commercial Real Estate
Source: ChessRealtors.com

Commercial Real Estate and its Altered Path
Brian Wallace



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Firefox and Twitter Aren’t Playing Nice

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Firefox and Twitter Aren’t Playing Nice

Users are experiencing major issues with Twitter and Firefox, in many cases completely unable to log in with the open-source browser.

According to 9to5Mac, multiple users have taken to Twitter to complain about not being able to log in to the social media platform using Firefox. In other cases, even users that are able to log in often have to continuously do so before it finally works.

At this point, it’s unclear what is causing the issue, although it seems to have started Monday evening for many users.

In my case, Firefox has not worked with Twitter’s login for the better part of a year, although it seems related to my use of privacy-preserving extensions and settings. That opens the possibility that individuals may be experiencing an issue related to such an extension or to a security change Mozilla has introduced in a recent version.

Firefox and Twitter Aren’t Playing Nice
Matt Milano



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Red Hat Is Laying Off Hundreds of Workers

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Red Hat Is Laying Off Hundreds of Workers

Red Hat is joining the list of companies laying off employees, with plans to let hundreds of workers go.

According to WRAL News, Red Hat CEO Matt Hicks informed employees the company is planning to cut hundreds of jobs. Red Hat’s parent IBM recently engaged in its own round of layoffs, letting some 3,900 employees go, although WRAL News says CEO Arvind Krishna indicated the number has climbed to 5,000.

There’s no indication of the specific number of Red Hat employees being laid off, other than it being in the hundreds, or just under 4%.

“We will reduce the associate base of Red Hat over the next few weeks,” Hicks wrote in the email. He said the number would be “just under 4% in total.”

There are some divisions that will not be impacted, according to Hicks.

“We will not reduce roles directly selling to customers or building our products,” Hicks wrote.

“Notifications will begin today in some countries, and the process will continue through the end of Q2,” he added.

Like many other CEOs before him, Hicks says the layoffs are necessary to help secure the company’s future.

“At the core of this decision is the need to rebalance where we are investing to enable Red Hat’s future,” he said.

Red Hat Is Laying Off Hundreds of Workers
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Monday 24 April 2023

Lawsuit Says Amazon Continued Punishing Sellers, Despite Promises

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Lawsuit Says Amazon Continued Punishing Sellers, Despite Promises

Amazon is facing a new legal hurdle with a lawsuit accusing the company of breaking its promises not to retaliate against third-party sellers.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is leading a suit against Amazon, accusing the company of continuing to punish sellers that offer lower prices on competing online stores — such as eBay and Walmart — despite ending its Price Parity Provision in 2019.

In newly redacted documents, Bonta makes the case that Amazon ended the policy in name only, but continued its modus operandi. In fact, the company even planned to expand the penalties.

Here are some of the pertinent examples of Amazon’s behavior, as revealed in the documents the AG released (emphasis theirs):

5. But despite removing that language, Amazon continued to interpret and apply other provisions of its BSA to mandate the same price parity agreement from third-party sellers. As an internal Amazon document put it, despite “the recent removal of the price parity clause in our BSA . . . our expectations and policies have not changed.”

14. [I]nternal Amazon documents confirm that just months after Amazon eliminated the Price Parity Provision from its BSA, Amazon planned an expansion of the penalties for lower prices off Amazon. An Amazon Director observed that these expanded penalties “may generate pushback given recent positive press about our change to remove the previous price parity clause which required 3P [third-party] Sellers to price their products on Amazon lower than they price them anywhere else.” In other words, Amazon claimed to antitrust enforcers that it was no longer enforcing price parity, but it continued to do just that. Amazon even anticipated that “media and selling partners may claim the removal of the clause was not only trivial but a trick and an attempt to garner goodwill with policymakers amid increasing competition concerns.”

According to the AG’s documents, Amazon’s measures appear to have had the desired effect on sellers, with many of them living in fear of doing anything that could negatively impact their standing with the company:

68. One seller reported to Amazon, “I still wake up in fear every day that my account or a key ASIN [Amazon Standard Identification Number] could be suspended.” Amazon admits in internal documents that “Sellers live in constant fear that their accounts will be suspended, or that top selling products will be removed, putting their businesses and livelihoods at risk.”

The documents also show the policy had widespread support within Amazon, with the company’s VP of Pricing encouraging veiled threats:

163. [I]n January 2019, a Marketplace seller complained to Amazon, “the problem is that we’re being asked to take our prices down [on Amazon] to match our own [website] store.” Amazon’s VP of Pricing reminded the seller’s account manager that it could be unsuppressed if the price on the other website changed, and the seller should “control prices across all his channels. . . . [Y]ou might want to ask him to check if his sales on other sites directly or through distributors is putting him and us at a relative competitive disadvantage. . . . He might get the hint. :)”. The hint was straightforward: raise your prices elsewhere if you want to make sales on Amazon.

Despite a similar lawsuit from the Washington D.C. District Attorney being dismissed in 2021, the California AG may just have the goods to force Amazon to stop price-fixing.

“As California families struggle to make ends meet, we’re in court to stop Amazon from engaging in anticompetitive practices that keep prices artificially high and stifle competition,” said Attorney General Bonta. “There is no shortage of evidence showing that the ‘Everything store’ is costing consumers more for just about everything. Amazon coerces merchants into agreements that keep prices artificially high, knowing full well that they can’t afford to say no. With other e-commerce platforms unable to compete on price, consumers turn to Amazon as a one-stop shop for all their purchases. This perpetuates Amazon’s market dominance, allowing the company to make increasingly untenable demands on its merchants and costing consumers more at checkout across California. We won’t stand by while Amazon uses coercive contracting practices to dominate the market at the expense of California consumers, small business owners, and the economy.”

Lawsuit Says Amazon Continued Punishing Sellers, Despite Promises
Matt Milano



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Crafting a Video Strategy That Will Resonate with Your Target Audience

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Crafting a Video Strategy That Will Resonate with Your Target Audience

As a marketer, you understand that video is necessary for success in the digital world. It can make all the difference for businesses and brands looking to connect with their target audience. Yet, to maintain your place ahead of the competition, you need a well-defined video strategy that captures your audience’s attention and resonates with viewers.

Video content that achieves these goals ensures you drive engagement and foster meaningful connections. Therefore, crafting a video strategy that is unique and compelling is essential to your success. Discover why it matters in how you prepare your video strategy and how to create one that is relevant to your audience.

The Importance of Creating a Video Marketing Strategy

A well-crafted video strategy is key for planning how you will create content that generates interest, builds connections and fosters brand affinity. Yet, how you make the video is important because it impacts how much the content will speak to your audience’s emotions and needs. In turn, this enables you to spark meaningful conversations and position your brand as a go-to source for valuable inspiration. 

Additionally, a video strategy that resonates with your audience increases shareability, amplifying your reach and brand visibility. As viewers connect with your content, they will be sure to share it with their networks, giving your brand the traction it needs to succeed. In an era where attention is scarce — investing in a captivating video strategy and good lighting will be the ingredient to increasing engagement and achieving long-term growth. 

How to Craft a Relatable Video Strategy

If you are ready to produce a video strategy that truly resonates with your audience, follow these tips below.

1. Define Your Target Audience

Knowing your target audience will help you craft a video strategy that resonates. Start by defining the demographics of your ideal viewers, such as age, gender, location and income level. This tactic will give you the information needed to create tailored content that is relevant and engaging.

Once you have defined those specifics, you can start getting into the psychographics of the target audience. Consider exploring aspects like their values, beliefs and motivations. Identifying their emotional drivers will form a deeper connection with your audience, helping you craft more relatable videos your viewers will appreciate.

Lastly, get to know your audience more by digging into the platforms they frequent and the content they consume. This information will allow you to choose the most effective channels and formats for your video content.

2. Set Clear Objectives for Your Video Strategy

Your video strategy needs clearly defined goals to align your efforts with your overall marketing objectives. That way, you can create a purposeful plan that drives the desired results. Additionally, your goals allow you to measure your video marketing success, enabling you to optimize your strategy over time.

Yet, how do you know which objectives to choose for your strategy? The first simple step is to consider your broader marketing and business goals. Then, assess how your video content will support these goals. For example, your objectives may be increasing brand awareness, generating leads, engaging consumers or driving sales conversions.

Be specific and measurable in setting your objectives, and establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to track your progress. That way, your goals are clear, and you can create an intentional video strategy that delivers meaningful results.

3. Optimize for Search Engines and Social Media Platforms

Integrating this step within your video strategy is essential for improving online visibility and reach. You can easily achieve this by implementing SEO best practices for your video content to enhance its chances of appearing in search results and garnering views. Similarly, it helps to tailor your video content on social media platforms to increase engagement and organic growth.

Start optimizing by researching keywords your audience will use to search for your content. Then incorporate these relevant terms into your video titles, descriptions and tags.

To increase your video’s visibility on social media, consider your users’ behaviors on each channel and adapt your video formats, lengths and posting schedules accordingly.

4. Develop a Compelling Narrative

Stories are great for evoking emotions and maintaining viewer interest. However, it would be best if you incorporated certain storytelling techniques to create unique content. The only factor is that many marketers need help integrating storytelling into a brand’s content, as many struggle with this tactic.

The most simple way to create a compelling narrative is to focus on the human element within your content. Share relatable experiences, challenges and successes the viewers can empathize with in your videos. By incorporating some of these elements into your video strategy, you can create stories that connect with your audience emotionally.

However, it is important to consider your audience’s pain points when telling compelling stories. Oftentimes, this allows you to provide solutions and demonstrate how your products or services can alleviate their problems. Essentially, you can think of it as weaving a story into your video content so you create an impactful experience for viewers.

5. Choose the Right Type of Video Content

The type of videos you share with your audience also influences how your strategy resonates with your target audience. For instance, 94% of digital marketers agree that video content improves users’ knowledge. Yet, how you create your content will impact their understanding and decision-making processes.

Consider your objectives, target audience and suitable formats. You can engage your audience effectively when creating the right type of video content. The most popular types of videos are educational, social media stories and live streaming, webinars, testimonials and product demonstrations.

For example, if you decide educational videos will be the most effective, create informative content such as tutorials, how-tos and explainers. These will be the most sufficient in positioning your brand as an expert in your industry. 

When you consider the different types of video content, you can craft a diverse, engaging strategy that caters to your audience’s preferences.

6. Improve Your Video Strategy by Leveraging Analytics

Take advantage of your video’s analytics to measure your strategy’s effectiveness and identify improvement areas. You can start by tracking your KPIs, such as views, watch time and conversions, to gain insights about your content and make data-driven decisions for optimization.

However, it is important to remember that you must regularly review your data performance to indicate what resonates with your audience. When analyzing your results, consider the types of content that drive the most engagement. Then, use that information to create more of what works. 

Beyond looking at the numbers, you can also gather feedback through comments and social media interactions. That way, you can refine your content and narrative and ensure it remains relevant and engaging for your target audience.

Engage Your Audience With a Resonant Video Strategy

A video strategy that resonates with your target audience is vital for driving engagement, conversions and brand awareness. Yet, creating a powerful video strategy takes clear objectives and marketing best practices. Captivate your audience like never before by focusing on the steps above. That way, you can craft a winning video strategy for your brand and audience.

Crafting a Video Strategy That Will Resonate with Your Target Audience
Brian Wallace



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Arm Is Developing a Showcase Chip to Attract Business

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Arm Is Developing a Showcase Chip to Attract Business

Arm is reportedly working on its own chip to showcase what its designs are capable of in the hopes of attracting more business.

Arm is a chip design firm that licenses its designs to other companies. Arm-based chips are used in the most popular devices on the market, including those of Apple, Samsung, and more. According to a new report by Financial Times via Engadget, the company wants to take a more direct role in showcasing its inventions.

The company has reportedly been working on its prototype for six months, an effort being led by Kevork Kechichian, a former Qualcomm executive and Snapdragon designer. Arm is not expected to sell or license the chip, only using it as a proof-of-concept to show potential manufacturers what is possible. The move is expected to increase excitement and Arm’s mindshare in the lead-up to a potential IPO.

As Engadget points out, Arm’s customers will likely benefit from its work, even if the company never sells its chip. By manufacturing a showcase chip, the process could give Arm’s designers greater insight, leading to security and performance improvements.

Arm Is Developing a Showcase Chip to Attract Business
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Cloud Honeymoon May Be Over As Growth At AWS and Microsoft Slows

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Cloud Honeymoon May Be Over As Growth At AWS and Microsoft Slows

The cloud industry is seeing some of its first warning signs that the honeymoon may be over, with the top platforms on the verge of a major slowdown.

Cloud computing firms have experienced record growth during the course of the pandemic, but analysts are warning that earnings may disappoint on slowing cloud growth.

According to Yahoo Finance, analysts believe this week’s earnings reports may reflect the slowest revenue growth since companies started reporting their cloud businesses separately.

“Given how much they’ve run, the setup for earnings is horrible,” said Ted Mortonson, a technology strategist at Robert W. Baird & Co. “I don’t know why you’d want to be over your skis going into first-quarter prints.”

The anticipated slow growth is just another indication of the state of the economy. While cloud computing was heralded as a way for companies to scale on demand while keeping expenses low, runaway costs have become a growing concern for many businesses. AWS has tried to reassure customers, but high-profile companies have begun scaling back their investment in commercial cloud options.

Despite the headwinds that seem to be forming, not everyone is ready to call it a day on cloud companies.

“There’s still a lot of runway ahead for cloud computing, so I don’t think investors should obsess too much over the level of growth over a couple quarters,” said Alec Young, chief investment strategist at MAPsignals.

Cloud Honeymoon May Be Over As Growth At AWS and Microsoft Slows
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LEGO Breaks Ground on Carbon-Neutral Virginia Factory

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LEGO Breaks Ground on Carbon-Neutral Virginia Factory

The LEGO Group broke ground in April on a new factory in Virginia, a first for the US and one that will be carbon neutral.

LEGO’s new factory represents a $1 billion investment for the company and is slated for completion in 2025. The site covers 340 acres and will be carbon neutral, thanks to its abundant ground and rooftop solar panels.

“We are absolutely delighted to mark the beginning of construction here in Virginia,” said Carsten Rasmussen, Chief Operations Officer of the LEGO Group. “We are grateful for the fruitful collaboration we have had with all partners across the Commonwealth of Virginia who share and support our ambition to build this factory.

“We are working hard to reduce emissions at the LEGO Group and are really excited about our plans to build this solar plant as we push towards a better world for our children to inherit.

“Our new site will allow us to inspire millions of children across the Americas through play and we can’t wait to get started.”

The company took the unique approach of inviting the children of Richmond, VA to help design the grounds, using models made of — you guess it — LEGO bricks.

Once the factory is complete, it will employ 1,760 highly skilled workers.

LEGO Breaks Ground on Carbon-Neutral Virginia Factory
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