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Elon Musk asks Twitter users if he should resign as CEO

There hasn’t been a dull day on Twitter ever since Elon Musk took command of the platform. Only a few days back, Musk stepped on the stage with Dave Chappelle in San Francisco to get brutally booed by people in the audience. It looks like the public booing has brought about a change of heart for Elon who recently took to Twitter and started a poll asking people if he should quit the Twitter CEO position.

Elon Musk’s CEO resign poll

Elon Musk recently took to Twitter and started a poll asking if he should step down as the head of Twitter. If the results are to be believed, it looks like Musk will be quitting the CEO position soon. He’s promised to abide by the results of the poll and so far there have been over 3.8 million people have voted in the poll, with the majority in favour of him resigning as the CEO of Twitter. Talk about digging your own grave!

It looks like Musk has now accepted the fate of having to step down as the Twitter CEO as he followed up the poll by tweeting ‘As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it’

However, his stepping down as Twitter CEO could be a relief for Musk as he is currently the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter. A little decluttering never hurt anyone! Elon does need to divert his attention to Tesla as the company’s stock has plunged 62.55 per cent over the last year, upsetting a number of Tesla shareholders.

It was only yesterday when Elon was spotted in Qatar watching the FIFA world cup final between France and Argentina with Jared Kushner, who is the son-in-law of Donald Trump. It was only back in October when it was revealed that Prince Alwaleed bin Talal from Saudi Arabia and his investment firm was the second-largest investor of Twitter. This has brought about another backlash towards Musk who was already under public scrutiny. In the short time Elon took over Twitter, there has been the Twitter blue controversy, massive lay-offs, suspension of journalists from the platform, the Apple controversy, and much more! It will be interesting to see how things pan out once Elon has stepped down from the CEO position of Twitter, or will he?

Microsoft bans crypto mining on cloud platform

It looks like the crypto community cannot catch a break. With news ranging from crypto billionaires dying mysteriously to the coins’ plummeting rates, 2022 was not entirely the year for crypto investors and enthusiasts. Now, another big blow to crypto bros has come from Microsoft which has decided to enforce new restrictions on cryptocurrency mining.

Microsoft bans crypto mining

Microsoft, one of the biggest players in the cloud computing arena has decided to take drastic measures to increase the stability of its cloud services. As a result, crypto mining has been axed from Microsoft’s cloud platform. There was no official announcement of the same as Microsoft quietly decided to ban crypto mining from its online services in order to protect its customers and clouds. The Register, a British tech news agency was the first to crack this development on December 15, 2022.

Microsoft introduced the new restrictions as a part of its universal license terms of Microsoft Online Services. Microsoft’s updated acceptable policy clarifies that crypto mining is now ‘prohibited’ on its platform without prior approval. The latest policy states that users now require users to obtain a written pre-approval from the company in order to use any Microsoft Online Services for crypto mining.

As per reports, Microsoft said that the latest restrictions laid upon crypto mining aims to protect the online service from cyber risks like fraud, attacks, and unauthorized access to customer resources. Furthermore, the company stated that it may consider permissions to mine crypto only for testing and research purposes, thus crypto whales running big mining operations on Microsoft cloud will take a massive hit with this development. Microsoft won’t be the first company in recent times to adopt the new restrictions. Earlier, Google also restricted users from engaging in crypto mining without the company’s prior written approval. Besides this, platforms like Oracle have banned crypto mining entirely, whereas Digital Ocean also requires users to take written permission.

Sony India launches SRS-XV900 wireless party speaker with omnidirectional party sound

Sony India today announced the launch of the new SRS-XV900, the most powerful and loudest Bluetooth party speaker in the wireless speaker X-series range. The speaker forms part of the “LIVE LIFE LOUD” vision to deliver exciting sound entertainment experiences to music lovers around the world. Life should be lived at full volume and that means being able to enjoy clear, rich sound from Sony’s new SRS-XV900 speaker to make the most of every single moment.

Omnidirectional party sound with X-Balanced speaker

Sony India’s new SRS-XV900 lets you enjoy powerful omnidirectional party sound. This wireless speaker is designed to fill the space with sound. The non-circular diaphragm of the X-Balanced speaker unit gives more sound pressure and less distorted sound by maximizing the area of the speaker and jet bass booster delivers deep, punchy, powerful bass. The midrange drivers provide excellent vocals while the 6 tweeters on the front, side and back spread high frequency sound all around.

TV Sound booster connectivity for better TV sound experience

The SRS-XV900 speaker features Sony’s unique function, TV Sound booster that lets you enjoy enhanced sound when watching TV. Deep bass and realistic high-frequency sound from the SRS-XV900 fills the room and boosts your TV’s sound to provide a rich audio-visual experience, whether you are watching live performance videos or movies. Simply connect the optical cable (included) and select TV Sound Booster function irrespective of the TV brand or model

Quick charging with long lasting battery life of 25 hours allows to enjoy your party

You can now take your sound anywhere around your home with 25-hour battery life on the SRS-XV900 that will keep the music going day and night. If you find your speaker’s running out of battery, there’s no need to worry. With the speaker’s quick charging, you can get 3 hours of playing time with just 10 minutes of charging. With the Battery Care Mode feature, you never have to worry about overcharging your speaker, making it more dependable for longer.

Mega Bass and Live Sound for enhanced music experience

The Mega Bass feature allows you to dial up the bass on your speaker, providing you with deep and punchy bass. With the new SRS-XV900 speaker, you can enjoy your music like it is live. With the Live Sound mode, you can recreate that unique atmosphere and re-live your favorite music experiences, over and over again. LIVE LIFE LOUD and create memorable moments with the SRS-XV900.

Convenient carry handle and wheels

The product comes with a convenient handle. Whenever you want to move the speaker you can hold the carry handle and tilt it back. Sturdy castors let you roll all the way to the party!

Fun and Entertaining features with karaoke double tracking

SRS-XV900 speaker is loaded with fun and entertaining features making it perfect for your party with friends. Plug in your microphone, pick a song, and sing your heart out. With two inputs (mic & guitar), you can even plug in a guitar and use the speaker as an amp. Further enrich your singing vocals with the Double Tracking feature via the Fiestable mobile app. You will also always have complete control of the speaker with the intuitive top touch panel that allows you to change function settings and lighting with just a touch.

Bluetooth connectivity and Party Connect

Party Connect via Bluetooth® allows you to connect upto 100 compatible Sony Bluetooth speakers to enjoy synchronized sound and lighting for an extra-large party and to make sure everyone’s dancing to the same beat. In addition, the speaker allows you to plug in and play music with USB connectivity. And if your smartphone is running low on battery, you can even plug it into the speaker and have it charged directly. The SRS-XV900 also allows you to instantly connect the speaker to your smartphone using Bluetooth fast pair for Android.

Sony Music Center and Fiestable

The new SRS-XV900 is compatible with both Sony Music Center and Fiestable apps. With Sony Music Center you can select playlists, cue the next song, change lighting patterns, and sound modes all from the dance floor. Fiestable allows you to access fun features to help create the ultimate party atmosphere, such as making a party playlist, karaoke functions including Voice Changer and Echo, plus DJ control to add sound effects.

The SRS-XV900 speaker will be available across all Sony Centers, major electronic stores, and e-commerce portals in India from 5th December 2022 onwards at Rs 79,990.

YouTube removed 17 lakh videos in India in Q3

YouTube as a platform is known to have strict community guidelines. The community guidelines serve the purpose of protecting advertiser interest and limiting content with adult themes. The platform does not play around when it comes to the guidelines and does to tolerate any creator crossing the lines. Thus, YouTube removes lakhs of videos from its platform every quarter for videos violating the community guidelines. Now, YouTube has revealed that it removed 17 lakhs videos uploaded from India during the July-September quarter for violating the company’s community guidelines.

YouTube removes 17 lakh videos

YouTube recently revealed in a blog that it removed 1.7 million videos from India for violating the community guidelines in the third quarter of 2022. On the other hand, a total of 5.6 million videos were removed from the platform at the global scale. The platform received a total of 2,71,000 removal appeals during the third quarter out of which about 29,000 appeals were reinstated.

YouTube revealed an interesting statistic that July through September of 2002, for every 10,000 videos, at least 10 or 11 were them violating the community guideline. however, YouTube also revealed that it tracks a number of appeals made by creators for the videos that are removed in order to get a better understanding of accuracy of the removal system. Check out an excerpt from YouTube’s official blog below –

“To measure the effectiveness of our enforcement, we release a metric called our violative view rate, which looks at how many views on YouTube come from violative material. From July through September of this year, that number was 0.10% – 0.11%, which means that for every 10,000 views, between 10 and 11 were of content that violated our Community Guidelines.

We also track the number of appeals submitted by creators in response to videos that are removed (an option available to any Creator on YouTube), as this helps us gain a clearer understanding about the accuracy of our systems. For example, during the same time period mentioned above, we removed more than 5.6 million videos for violating our Community Guidelines and received roughly 271,000 removal appeals. Upon review, we reinstated about 29,000 appeals.”

Corning unveils Gorilla Glass Victus 2 with enhanced drop resistance

Corning over the years has become the go-to option for smartphone manufacturers. The company is known for making the Gorilla Glass protective layer for smartphones and other devices. The company has now announced the latest protective glass expanding the Gorilla Glass lineup. The new protective glass is titled ‘Gorilla Glass Victus 2’ which comes as the successor of the previously launched Gorilla Glass Victus that launched a few years back and became a norm for flagship devices.

Gorilla Glass Victus 2 launched

According to Corning, the new protective glass offers better drop performance on rough surfaces like concrete while also retaining the scratch-resisting capabilities of the original Victus glass. Corning revealed that the bigger the device screen gets diagonally, there is greater the chance of it breaking off due to the heavier form factor. The company shared that today’s phone devices have become 15% heavier with screen sizes up to 10% larger than they were half a decade ago. Corning wanted to create a glass protector that can improve the protection for larger and heavier devices.

Corning revealed that the Gorilla Glass Victus 2 easily survived drops of up to one meter on a surface ‘replicating’ concrete. The company claimed furthermore that while Victus 2 easily survived the drop test, other manufacturers failed from half a meter or less. besides this, the Victus 2 also survived 2-meter drops on a surface replicating asphalt while maintaining scratch resistance four times better than its competitors. The Corning Gorilla Glass Victus 2 is expected to hit the markets within the next few months.

The Super Mario Bros Movie trailer builds a colorful world

There’s always skepticism when it comes to major Hollywood studios jumping on the video game bandwagon. Films based on popular video games have been less than impressive in the past, 2022’s Uncharted was a good example of the same. On the other hand, there also has been Sonic The Hedgehog films that successfully managed to grab the essence of the blue speedster. Now, Nintendo and Illumination have launched the full trailer for their upcoming The Mario Bros Movie which looks like another step in the right direction. Check out the trailer – HERE

The Super Mario Bros. Movie trailer launched

While the first teaser was just a mere introduction to the film’s villain, Bowser, and a little glimpse of Mario, the second trailer is a full-fledged look at what’s waiting in store for fans. The bigger idea of the movie’s plot revolves around Bowser’s quest to conquer the world while Princess Peach tries to stop him. By the looks of it, protagonist Mario is still finding his footing as a hero. He gets beat up by Donkey Kong, attacked by Cheep Cheeps, and even fails to land a simple platform while karting.

The trailer is full of fan service. However, one interesting aspect of the film is the character development of Princess Peach from a damsel in distress to a butt-kicking savior. Making Peach an active part of the narrative is surely a welcoming change. The trailer successfully manages to integrate parts of the existing Mario games. Yoshi Island, the original Donkey Kong game and Karting on the Rainbow Road are all present in the trailer making it the perfect gift for Mario fans! While Chris Pratt’s voice as the iconic character was a matter of concern for hardcore fans when it was initially announced, the actor seems to have done a pretty good job!

Social media companies to be fined if they fail to remove self-harm content in UK

Trigger Warning: Mention of suicide and self-harm

How many times have you stumbled upon questionable or grotesque content on social media and asked yourself – How the hell did this get here?

It has been more times than one would imagine (which is zero) and government authorities around the world have not shown any interest in trying to regulate self-harm/suicide content on social media, until now! The Britain government has taken the first step to stop the spread of self-harm content on social media and ordered to fine social media companies that fail to remove such content. This decision has been taken as a part of the overhaul of legislation governing online behavior.

UK to fine social media companies over self-harm content

The debate about government organizations infiltrating social media platforms to promote their agenda has been long and tiring. While I stand tall on the belief that a governing body has no right to make definitive changes to what people say on social media as it tampers with people’s right to an opinion, this is one aspect where I do not mind the government doing so. There has been an influx of suicide-related content on social media that indirectly encourages the act as opposed to educating people about it. Normalizing content that in a way ‘promotes’ suicide or self-harm undoubtedly has a lasting effect on young impressionable minds and society as a whole.

Recently, Britain’s culture, media, and sports ministry issued a statement saying that it now needs social media firms to block a wide range of content. “Social media firms can no longer remain silent bystanders … and they’ll face fines for allowing this abusive and destructive behavior to continue on their platforms under our laws,” said UK’s Digital Secretary Michelle Donelan.

The proposal aims to block videos and images viewed by 14-year-old Molly Russell whose death in 2017 sparked a public conversation about social media content. The investigation following her death concluded that social media platforms had fed content to her that romanticized the acts of self-harm by younger people. Social media algorithms are known to feed content a user indulges in thus the allegation of such platforms feeding malicious content does not feel far-fetched.

While Britain is the first country to take this step towards the right decision, one can only hope the rest of the countries follow suit!

If you or anybody you know who is struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts and need help can reach out to the numbers listed below –

Mitram Foundation – 08025722573 or 9019708133
AASRA – 91-9820466726
Lifeline Foundation – 9088030303

Elon Musk ideates an ‘Alternative Phone’ if Twitter is removed from Apple and Google stores

What happens when tech giants like Apple and Google decide to drop an application from their app stores? Besides the obvious lawsuits, the banned application or platform takes a major hit when it comes to revenue and adding new users. Something on similar lines was witnessed by Epic Games’ Fortnite when Apple and Google decided to drop the game from their platform. Now, Elon Musk has shared what his plans are for if and when Apple and Google drop Twitter from their respective stores.

Elon Musk’s ‘Alternative Phone’

Musk fanatics are quick to support the billionaire when it comes to almost anything. But, will they buy a phone to use Twitter and prove their loyalty to him? Musk surely thinks so as he recently hinted that he may have to create an alternative phone.

Both Apple and Google charge app developers a fee of 15-30% on all-app transactions. On the other hand, Twitter is all set to roll out the $8 Blue subscription yet again. Since it will be an in-app purchase, Twitter will have to adhere to the rules laid out by Apple/Google to pay up the 15-30% fee. It is not sure whether Musk will retaliate against this practice by the tech giants or simply go with it. Thus, when a known podcast host put forward the idea of Musk making his own smartphone device, the billionaire found it interesting.

Elon Musk tweeted that if it ever comes to the point where Apple and Google kick Twitter out of their respective app stores then he would be left with no other choice but to build his own alternative smartphone. Musk fanatics were quick to jump in and write that he has the potential to revolutionize the smartphone market. Is a Tesla phone in the works? We’ll see!

Across The Spider-Verse To Feature Six Distinct Art Styles

Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse was undoubtedly one of the best-animated films ever made which managed to capture the essence of Spider-Man better than any other film. Fans of the previous film’s animation have a lot waiting for them in the store as its sequel will feature multiple animation styles in the forefront. If there is one thing fans can expect from Sony’s Spider-Verse films is that they will be left surprised by the animation and writers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are making sure of it!

Spider-Verse becomes more vibrant!

I was taken aback by the first film’s visuals when I saw it initially. It felt like an acid trip caught on celluloid delivering a cinematic experience like no other. In the second film, the Spider-Verse will be explored furthermore with more and more Spider-People jumping in from the multiverse with each of them having a distinct animation style. The latest actor to join the spider gang is Daniel Kaluuya who will be seen playing the character of Spider-Punk, an edgy iteration of the web-slinging hero. The film will feature Peter Parker, Spider-Man 2099, Spider-Woman, and Miles Morales. We also expect a dash of Spider-Noir and a splash of the comedic Spider-Pig. That’s a lot of spiders!

Lord and Miller recently sat down for an interview with Empire where they revealed that while the first film had one animation style which dominated the film, this one has six. This creative choice was made by the makers in order to wow the audience every time the multiverse entered a new environment. The teaser of the sequel only focussed on two of the styles while four others are yet to be revealed. Interestingly, one of the animation themes known as ‘Mumbattan’ is inspired by the Indian comic book style. It will be interesting to see how this ‘Desi Tadka’ inspires the mammoth Hollywood animation film!