Techmeme
November 5, 2022, 4:35 PM

Top News

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Twitter rolls out its new Blue subscription, which offers a blue checkmark for $8/month, on iOS and Android in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and UK  —  Twitter is officially rolling out its new Twitter Blue subscription service, which offers “blue check” verification to everyone for $8/month.
Brian Morrissey / The Rebooting:
Elon Musk's focus on Twitter Blue is part of a trend in which consumer tech platforms pivot away from advertising to recurring revenue through subscriptions  —  Tech's marriage of convenience to the ad industry hits the rocks  —  Request: Please fill out this survey as I think through what a Rebooting membership plan would look like.
Platformer:
Sources detail Twitter after mass layoffs: key teams gutted, severance packages account for the WARN Act, and an ad hoc Google Docs directory of remaining staff  —  I. The Snap  —  The email went out at 5:21 PT PT on Thursday.  —  For a full week, Twitter employees had waited in hopes …
Financial Times:
Current and former Twitter staff shed light on Elon Musk's “War Room”, which includes Jason Calacanis and David Sacks, tasked with fixing the stagnant business  —  In his first week as owner, billionaire axed management, began mass job cuts and launched new products
Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:
More: TechCrunch, The Guardian, MobileSyrup, The Irish Times, Gizmodo, New York Times, Mercury News, NBC News, Politico, Gizchina, Mashable, Cryptopolitan, Bloomberg, Insider, The Hill, The Economic Times, and Silicon Valley Business …
CNN:
Sources: 1,300 Starlink units in Ukraine went offline as SpaceX and the US DoD negotiate funding despite Elon Musk claiming the company will continue “for free”  —  Ukraine's fears that its troops  may lose access to Elon Musk's crucial Starlink internet service deepened …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with telecom reporter Karl Bode about Gigi Sohn's nomination to the FCC as Comcast and Fox Corp. team up to lobby swing votes in the Senate against her  —  How often do the parent companies of Fox News and MSNBC team up? … Today, we're just talking about a problem.
Wall Street Journal:
Elon Musk says Twitter suffered “a massive drop in revenue” due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, despite doing “everything” to “appease the activists”  —  Chief of social-media company cites activist groups pressuring advertisers, as many staffers brace to lose jobs
More: USA Today, Wall Street Journal, TIME, The Verge, Adweek, CNBC, SlashGear, Mercury News, Forrester, The Information, Bloomberg, Insider, VICE, Watcher Guru, Android Central, and Associated Press
J.D. Capelouto / Semafor:
Bloomberg:
Source: NSO Group, which has ~$400M in debt, cut 15% of its workforce and raised prices by ~20% after a potential sale to defense contractor L3Harris collapsed  —  Embattled spyware maker NSO Group is taking drastic steps to pacify creditors holding around $400 million in debt as it waits …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is building a live TV ad network and talking to ad partners as part of its deal to stream Major League Soccer games starting in February 2023  —  Apple Inc. is building an advertising network for live television as part of its deal to stream Major League Soccer games next year …
Zeke Faux / Bloomberg:
El Salvador's Bitcoin “revolution” is failing miserably and behind the debacle are crypto evangelists from wealthier countries who cheered on President Bukele  —  On an estuary along the coast of El Salvador, a few miles west of the Conchagua volcano, about 70 families live in a settlement called Flor de Mangle.
Jordan Pearson / VICE:
As chess explodes on Twitch, a look at Chess.com's Global Championship, its first in-person event since 2018, and “fair play” measures amid a cheating scandal  —  Cheating allegations have changed how chess is played, just as the game is shifting into looking a lot more like esports.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Say hello to Zia Answer Bot: Your organization's knowledge, on-demand in every Zoho Lens session.  —  Imagine your technician is halfway through a live remote assistance session.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Are AI Glasses Over?, Big Technology Audience Questions, Alex Stamos on AI Cybersecurity
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Mutiny's Jaleh Rezaei: Walking Away From Millions In Software To Grow Even Faster With Sales AI
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Hard Fork:
'Hard Fork' Live, Part 3: Differing Visions of an A.I. Future
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
The billionaire paying AI researchers to stay out of Big Tech
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
The Race to the Middle
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:35 PM ET, November 5, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Deepsekhar Choudhury / Moneycontrol:

Earlier Picks

Jonathan Greig / The Record:
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Casey Newton / Platformer: