As low Earth orbit crowds, Starlink satellites are making thousands of avoidance maneuvers, raising concerns of a catastrophic impact. SpaceX told the FCC in a recent filing that its orbital communication satellites maneuvered over 25,000 times between December 1, 2022, and May 21, 2023. The company said its maneuvering threshold …
Read More »WeChat launches Apple’s online store in China
Tuesday’s Tencent-owned WeChat app announced Apple’s online store. WeChat’s mini-programs, which include e-commerce, financial services, and transportation, have brought the Cupertino company’s store to the app. This store sells iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Macs. As Reuters notes, Apple already has a store on Alibaba’s Tmall retail platform, Tencent’s rival. …
Read More »Instagram Threads hits 100 million users in five days
Instagram’s text-based app Threads reached 100 million sign-ups in five days. Trackers say the Twitter competitor launched on June 6 (June 5 in the Americas). On the first day, Mark Zuckerberg said the app had 2 million sign-ups in two hours, 5 million in four, and 10 million in seven. …
Read More »Celebrity-led learning platform FrontRow closes
Confirmed that FrontRow, an Indian celebrity-focused hobby-learning and community platform, has closed. The three-year-old startup created a community where famous artists and athletes taught consumers. Elevation Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Not Boring Capital backed the $18 million startup. FrontRow co-founder Ishaan Preet Singh told that the …
Read More »Restoring TweetDeck’s old version
Users can now manually revert to the “old” TweetDeck. This may not be possible for long. The “TweetDeck version” option in users’ settings lets those forced onto the new TweetDeck revert. From the edge Twitter has been testing a TweetDeck refresh for years, but users who opted in could opt …
Read More »JumpCloud resets API keys for “ongoing incident”
JumpCloud reset API keys to protect customers from a security incident. In an email to customers, the directory, identity, and access management giant reported a “ongoing incident” without details. The company said the resets were “out of an abundance of caution” in a support post. Louisville, Colorado-based technology secures cloud …
Read More »Black Sesame, Nvidia’s Chinese auto chip competitor, burns $140M annually
Chinese auto chip maker Black Sesame recently filed to go public in Hong Kong, providing a glimpse into the business prospects and challenges of an industry that’s becoming increasingly important amid an autonomous driving boom and China’s semiconductor independence. Black Sesame, founded by Bosch and OmniVision alumni, could challenge Nvidia, …
Read More »Apple removes Indian predatory lending apps after scrutiny
After days of criticism, Apple removed several predatory lending apps from the App Store in India. Apple removed Pocket Kash, White Kash, Golden Kash, and OK Rupee this week. In recent weeks, the apps reached the top 20 of the App Store’s finance list by offering Indian consumers fast-track lending. …
Read More »GPT-4 is made available by OpenAI
Today, OpenAI released GPT-4, its latest text-generating model, via its API. All OpenAI API developers “with a history of successful payments” can access GPT-4 this afternoon. The company plans to open access to new developers by the end of the month, then raise availability limits “depending on compute availability.” “Millions …
Read More »Traffic cones are blocking AVs in San Francisco
San Francisco safe streets activists discovered they can disable Cruise and Waymo robotaxis by placing a traffic cone on a vehicle’s hood. The group’s viral “Week of Cone” prank on Twitter and TikTok is a protest against the city’s robotaxi services, which residents are tired of breaking down and blocking …
Read More »