Wikipedia is getting its first desktop update in over a decade. The update is aimed at making the site more accessible and easier to use. The goal is to make it more of a modern web platform and to remove clutter. The new interface has already been launched on hundreds of language versions of Wikipedia.
Instagram announces a new feature called ‘quiet mode’ The feature aims to help users focus and set boundaries with friends and followers. It will roll out to users in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Instagram is pitching it as a tool to help with studying and prompting teens to turn on the feature.
State-backed entities have taken tiny stakes in parts of two Alibaba subsidiaries. The holdings raised concerns about Beijing's influence over the e-commerce giant. The affected subsidiaries are just two of several units under the company's digital media and entertainment arm. The state-backed stakes reflect a progression of government directives over the last decade.
President Joe Biden said the US and Netherlands were working in “lockstep” over their approach to China and would discuss ways to secure global supply chains during a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the White House. “Together we’re working on how to keep a free and open Indo-Pacific. And quite frankly, meet the challenges of China,” Biden said Tuesday during the meeting.
Reed Hastings, one of the founders of Netflix, is stepping down as co-chief executive. He will become the company's executive chairman. Greg Peters, the company’s chief product and chief operating officer, will take over as a co- chief executive.
Apple just made a surprise announcement: a new HomePod smart speaker. While it was thought that a successor to the original HomePod was coming, the timing was unexpected.The first HomePod was Apple’s large smart speaker, released almost five years ago in early 2018. Reviews were mixed about how smart the speaker was, but almost unanimous in one regard: the audio quality was fantastic. Pricing was at the higher end of smart speakers at $349.
Global smartphone shipments dropped 17 per cent year-on-year in Q4 2022 and 11 per cent across the whole year. Full-year shipments were just less than 1.2 billion units. Apple reclaimed the top spot with it’s highest-ever market share of 25 per cent despite manufacturing issues in China. Samsung was second with a 20 per cent market share and Xiaomi remained third.
Microsoft announced Wednesday that it's cutting 10,000 employees. Amazon is also cutting 18,000 jobs, the largest workforce reduction in the e-retailer's 28-year history. The tech industry is facing slowing growth, higher interest rates and fears of a possible recession.
Amazon, Facebook parent company Meta, and Google are the top three corporate purchasers of wind and solar energy. The technology sector is outpacing other industries in buying clean power, but it’s been increasing across all industries. From 2012 to 2022, the amount of clean energy bought by companies has increased by an average of 73 percent per year.
Samsung is launching its new 200-megapixel Isocell HP2 image sensor which aims to give smartphone photographers high resolution and good image quality in challenging conditions. The sensor is expected to be used in the company's flagship Galaxy S23 Ultra phone, which is set to debut in February. The HP2 sensor uses new methods to counteract the problem of small pixels not being able to gather light as well in low-light conditions, such as by gathering light more effectively and boosting high dynamic range (HDR) photos. Samsung is focusing on technology as camera improvements are a prime reason to upgrade phones, and the company's rival Apple is also investing heavily in its cameras.