Renaissance ZZ (2026)

15/07/2022

A trove of internal Uber documents leaked to The Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), as well as dozens of other news outlets, outlines its strategies for global expansion — even if the company had to bend some rules. The leak, collectively dubbed the Uber Files, consists of over 124,000 documents spanning the period between 2013 and 2017.

Uber has since responded to the leak in a post on its website, stating it “moved from an era of confrontation to one of collaboration” after CEO Dara Khosrowshahi took over following founder Travis Kalanick’s resignation in 2017.

According to The Guardian, the leak also “shows how Uber tried to shore up support by discreetly courting prime ministers, presidents, billionaires, oligarchs and media barons.” In addition to memos, presentations, notebooks, and other telling documents, the leak includes “emails, iMessages and WhatsApp exchanges between the Silicon Valley giant’s most senior executives.”

The Uber Files reveal over 124,000 internal documents.

14/07/2022

We’re just days away from the official start of Amazon Prime Day, and while many discounts have already arrived, all signs point toward a swell of deals that should reach their peak on July 12th and 13th. There are many popular categories of tech expected to receive sizable sales — a few of which our deals team discussed via Twitter Spaces earlier this week — but some of the bigger categories are wearables and smart home tech. Luckily, there are already some pre-Prime Day deals in both categories that are worth your attention.

First up is the GPS-equipped Amazfit GTR 3, which is down to a new low of $120.98 ($59 off) on Amazon in the gray colorway. The budget-friendly smartwatch features a round, 1.39-inch OLED display and runs Amazfit’s own Zepp OS, named after its parent company Zepp Health. One of the advantages of this OS is that it’s compatible with both Apple’s Health app and Google’s Fit app. Sure, it’s not going to give you the notifications and software robustness of an Apple Watch, but it’s rated to last up to 21 days on a single charge while tracking the usual fitness metrics we’ve come to expect from a modern wearable — i.e., your steps, heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and sleep habits.

The impressive wearable works with both Android and iOS.

13/07/2022

Buying multiplatform games used to be a simple decision for me: I’d almost always get them on the Nintendo Switch because of how easy it is to play games both on a TV or in portable mode. The Steam Deck has thrown a wrench in that decision-making process. The handheld gaming PC might be heavier, have worse battery life, and doesn’t come with an easy Switch-like dock to throw my games onto a bigger screen, but because I feel like I can bank on Steam games being available much longer into the future, I’m having to make tough choices about whether I buy games on Valve’s storefront instead of Nintendo’s.

There’s one important thing I should state up front: I hadn’t owned a gaming PC of any kind until I got the Steam Deck in April. For a long while, I primarily played video games on Nintendo platforms, and I only really began to dig into the PlayStation and Xbox libraries in earnest with the beginning of the pandemic. (I got a PS4 just to play Final Fantasy VII Remake, and things escalated from there.)

If only the TV experience was a little better.

12/07/2022

Following Elon Musk’s notice to Twitter that he wants out of his $44 billion deal to purchase the company, employees have been instructed to not publicly comment on the deal. An internal memo by Twitter’s general counsel and obtained by The Verge says that staffers should “refrain from Tweeting, Slacking, or sharing any commentary about the merger agreement.”

The note, which you can read in full below, cites the fact that the merger is an ongoing legal matter. Musk’s team alleges that the company “failed or refused to provide” information about the number of bots on its platform,” and Twitter’s board has announced that it’s suing Musk to ensure that the deal goes through as originally agreed.

Usually good advice for ongoing legal matters.

11/07/2022

Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle startup backed by both Ford and Volkswagen, has laid off about 150 employees, as reported earlier by Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal. The move is supposed to offset a period of rapid growth, in which the company hired more employees than needed.

“With incredible growth and progress made in our mission to deploy driverless vehicles, we are making prudent adjustments to our business plan to best continue on a path for success,” Argo AI said in an emailed statement obtained by Bloomberg. The Verge reached out to Argo AI with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

As noted by the WSJ, the layoffs make up about 6 percent of the Pittsburgh-based company’s 2,000-person team. Argo AI was founded in 2016 by Bryan Salesky, the former head of hardware development for Google’s autonomous vehicles (AVs), and Peter Rander, who previously served as an engineering lead for Uber’s self-driving branch. Ford injected $1 billion into the company in 2017, and Volkswagen followed up with a $2.6 billion investment in 2020.

Argo AI has laid off about 6 percent of its workforce.

10/07/2022

Elon Musk says he’s going to boost childcare benefits at his companies as part of his mission to tackle the “underpopulation crisis” that he adamantly claims is “the biggest danger civilization faces by far.” The world’s richest man currently runs Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, and The Boring Company — he was also about to helm Twitter until he attempted to back out of the $44 billion buyout, much to the discontent of the company’s board.

“Kids are worth it if at all possible,” Musk writes. “I’m planning to increase childcare benefits at my companies significantly. Hopefully, other companies do the same.” Musk’s statement comes in response to a tweet asking about the financial implications of having several kids, a thread that Nick Cannon, who also has a growing family, even chimed in on. Musk adds that the Musk Foundation will “donate directly to families” as well, but it’s unclear what exactly this means. Musk says he’ll share more details about these plans next month.

The Musk Foundation also plans on donating to families.

09/07/2022

Starlink’s internet-from-space service continues expanding to new use cases with the launch of Starlink Maritime. What started in the home before expanding to stationary RVs is now available for boats on the move, at a cost of $5,000 a month. SpaceX is targeting merchant vessels, oil rigs, and wealthy owners of superyachts with the service.

Starlink Maritime also requires a one-time $10,000 purchase of two ruggedized high performance Starlink dishes which ship in about two weeks, according to the US order page. By comparison, the hardware for Starlink’s Residential and RV services costs $599 and includes a single (smaller) “Dishy McFlatface” (as the dish is known to fans), with monthly subscriptions of $110 for the home service or $135 for vanlifers. Importantly, using the RV service in motion is not allowed and will void the warranty.

Like Starlink RV, a Starlink Maritime subscription can be paused during the months you don’t need it. It’s also offered with no data cap like all Starlink subscriptions, but SpaceX does warn against “excessive use of network services.”

Your friend with the yacht will be so stoked.

08/07/2022

The Washington Post reports that Elon Musk’s $44 billion deal to buy Twitter is “in peril,” based on three anonymous sources who told the paper that the billionaire’s camp has “stopped engaging in certain discussions around funding” for the agreement. Musk isn’t going it alone in his attempt to buy Twitter, with others like Larry Ellison, the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity, the crypto exchange Binance, and the state investment firm of Qatar among those pitching in a few billion as a part of the effort.

The idea that a “drastic” change of direction on the deal is close to happening is supposedly due to concerns that Twitter’s data regarding spam and bots on the platform is not verifiable. The report comes just hours after Twitter had a conference call with media outlets to explain that its spam account data and technology for blocking bots are just fine, setting up a showdown between the company and its would-be new owner.

The $44 billion acquisition is reportedly "in peril."

29/06/2022

Amazon may have just revealed the July dates for its Prime Day shopping bonanza, but the company is already prepping a second shopping event for Amazon Prime subscribers for later this year, Business Insider and CNBC report. Information sent to sellers that has been seen by the publications calls it the “Prime Fall Deal Event,” though exactly when in the fall is unclear — CNBC quotes a notice saying it will happen in Q4, while Business Insider reports that “invited sellers say it appears to be scheduled for October.”

Last year, Amazon hosted a beauty products event in October, so another sales moment in that timeframe isn’t completely unprecedented. But this year’s fall event sounds like it could be more akin to a Prime Day 2.0, as both the summer and fall sales are “expected to feature frenzied sales of TVs, sneakers, and other items,” according to Business Insider. Amazon didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

You might want to prepare for a fall deals event.

28/06/2022

Early this morning, a small NASA spacecraft about the size of a microwave embarked on the beginning of a four-month-long journey to the Moon, where it will eventually insert itself into a unique, elongated lunar orbit that no NASA mission has visited before. The spacecraft’s goal is simple: test out this particular orbit and see what it’s like. That’s because it’s the same orbit that lunar-bound astronauts could use in the coming decade.

This distinctive orbit is called “near rectilinear halo orbit,” or NRHO for short. It’s a special seven-day path that spacecraft can take around the Moon, bringing vehicles relatively close to the lunar surface for one day before they swing out far from the Moon for the other six.

NASA is considering leveraging this orbit for its Artemis program — the agency’s effort to send the first woman and the first person of color to the surface of the Moon. Over the next decade, NASA wants to build a new space station around the Moon called the Gateway, a place that will serve as a training platform and living quarters for future astronauts headed to the lunar surface. And the space agency wants to park the Gateway on this loopy path around the Moon.

CAPSTONE is paving the way for the future of NASA’s lunar exploration

22/06/2022

On Friday, TikTok announced that it had started routing American users’ data to US-based servers owned by Oracle. But a timely report from BuzzFeed News calls into question what TikTok’s promise really delivers, claiming TikTok employees based in China have “repeatedly” accessed US users’ data over the course of at least several months.

In recordings of internal staff meetings and presentations obtained by BuzzFeed News, TikTok employees reportedly mentioned having to ask their colleagues in China to access US user data, as they weren’t able to access this data themselves. One member of TikTok’s trust and safety department team allegedly stated that “Everything is seen in China,” while another employee said a China-based engineer “had access to everything.”

These events reportedly occurred from at least September 2021 and January 2022, and follow similar allegations detailed by CNBC last year.

TikTok will now route US users’ data through Oracle’s servers.

21/06/2022

Workers at Apple’s Towson Town Center store in Maryland have voted to unionize, with 65 yeses and 33 nos. Around 110 employees were eligible to vote in the election.

The store is the first Apple retail location in the US to hold a union election, after organizers in Atlanta withdrew their petition to hold a union vote, which had been scheduled to take place in early May.

Organizing at the Towson store has been done by a group of employees that called themselves AppleCORE (an acronym for Coalition of Organized Retail Employees). The workers have said they want to expand their rights, specifically asking for a say when it came to pay, hours, and safety. AppleCORE is associated with a larger, established union, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

The first unionized Apple Store in the US.

Renaissance ZZ