Category: # 💻 tech

Twitter and Elon Musk’s ambitions

Elon Musk has unveiled his ambitious plans for Twitter, all aimed at supporting the goal of raising the company’s subscription revenue to $ 10 billion by 2028, or doubling the $ 5 billion in subscriptions raised by the social network. of microbolgging over the past year.

The information was gleaned from the New York Times which got to see a presentation Musk shared with investors. Among the first actions taken by Musk will be those aimed at triggering a growth in subscribers to Twitter Blue up to 69 million users by 2025, to reach 159 million by 2028. Twitter Blue, we remember, is a subscription plan at a cost of $ 2.99 a month, it offers access to an “unsubscribe” button, allows you to customize the app, read content without advertising and other features not available to non-subscribers.

The new owner of Twitter also expects particularly robust growth in Twitter users overall, which would rise from the current 217 million to 600 million in 2025 and to 931 million in 2028. Musk’s plans would also include another subscription service, called “X” which could garner 9 million subscribers in 2023 and 104 million by 2028.

All of these actions should therefore help push subscription revenue to $ 10 billion by 2028, where Musk’s projected overall revenue could reach $ 26.4 billion. Such as? According to information gathered by the Times, it would be mostly advertising revenue with Musk expecting an advertising revenue of $ 12 billion by 2028.

There would also be the desire to raise up to 1.3 billion dollars by 2028 from unspecified “payment activities”: in this sense, however, it is possible that some kind of synergy with PayPal, of which Musk is one, may be grafted. of the co-founders.

Finally, another revenue stream could be represented by the sale of tweets to third-party companies that analyze data and information to outline market trends and audience preferences. Last year, Twitter raised $ 572 million for data licensing. However, it is not clear how Musk intends to carry out this type of business, which could require a heavy revision of the terms of service.

Finally, there is talk of hiring, with plans to create up to 3600 more jobs. Elon Musk has set himself the goal of having more than 11,000 employees by 2025, which will be fundamental for building new services and user experiences.

The Chinese government abandons Windows and “Western” PCs: space for Linux

Over the next two years China will take care of nearly 50 million PCs used in government agencies with “non-foreigners” that can be maintained nationwide. This also involves the abandonment of Windows in favor of Linux, to an extent aimed at cutting any possible dependence on US realities for everything related to the operation of the state machine.

This is a measure that actually comes “from afar”, with the Chinese government over the last decade trying to encourage the adoption of local hardware and software as much as possible, including hiring a company to monitor local suppliers in the development of sensitive components and services for the operation of government information systems.

A move that could have quite severe effects on the reality as Dell and HP, for which the supply and assistance of a government reality is an important part of their turnover. Conversely, Lenovo could have the opportunity to snatch significant market share from US competitors.

However, there are some components that are fundamental for certain purposes and for which there is still no “made in China” alternative. Chinese PC system manufacturers will still rely on Western components – for example, processors and GPUs – to be able to build their machines.

It is similar that special permits will continue to exist for some specific categories, such as state media and cybersecurity agencies, because they can continue to source foreign technology, even if there is no real future in the future for a squeeze for these particular cases as well.

E3 2022, the video game fair has been canceled

E3 2022 will not take place, in any form. The largest video game fair in the world, a traditional annual event that Los Angeles E3 2021 was held in a digital format. In 2022 there won’t even be that.

“It had already been announced that E3 would not be held live in 2022 due to the continuing health risks associated with COVID-19. Today we announce that in 2022 there will not even be E3 in digital version”, reads a statement. of ESA. “We will devote all our energy and resources to deliver a revitalized physical and digital E3 experience this summer.”

In a world that after two years of emergency tests for coexistence with the virus, albeit in no particular order (from lockdowns to the end of the state of emergency in Italy), the world of fairs linked to entertainment and technology is moving again with lead feet: after the CES and the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in attendance, albeit with many defections and small ranks, E3 chooses the path of the sabbatical year, but to speak only of prudence would be an understatement.

While it is true that last week the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco was held, from which many industry professionals are rumored to have come out with COVID-19 positivity, it remains clear that more and more companies in the sector are opting to hold reviews. its online events, from Nintendo with Direct to Sony with State of Play.

If all goes well, E3 will return in 2023 taking over the reins of the videogame scene, but for this to happen it will have to be supported by the publisher and be economically sustainable. In the meantime, there are those who try to fill the void: Geoff Keighley has promptly confirmed that the Summer Game Fest will be held in June.

Proofpoint: with “job fraud” cybercriminals target students looking for work

A new threat is exploding in the world of cybercrime: it is called “job fraud” and tends to affect higher education organizations almost exclusively, in the United States but also in Europe and Australia. These types of attacks saw a further surge during the pandemic, when cybercriminals exploited people’s willingness to work from home or remote working. Indeed, with the promise of easy money (for example, working from home to collect personal data), cybercriminals steal money or persuade victims to unwittingly participate in illegal activities, such as money laundering.
For the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, the average loss of a “job fraud” is $ 3,000.

Proofpoint has identified a number of job-related threats: nearly 95% target educational institutions, particularly colleges and universities. So far, the majority of attacks have been concentrated in the United States, although attackers have targeted European and Australian institutions and facilities (nearly 4,000 email threats were recorded daily).

Sherrod DeGrippo, Vice President, Threat Research and Detection at Proofpoint points out, “Threats like this can cause people to lose their life savings or involve them in criminal operations without their knowledge. They are very worrying, especially for universities, so much so that Proofpoint detects and blocks thousands of fraud threats every week that could harm their students and teachers. “

WhatsApp will finally allow you to send 2GB files (2 years after Telegram)!

In the beta version 22.7.0.76 WhatsApp has introduced full support for the features of the latest version of the Apple operating system, released to the public about six months ago. In this period the company has introduced some of the innovations launched with iOS 15, such as the photo of some profiles in the app notifications and the Full Immersion mode. With full support of iOS 15, however, some parts of the UI change, becoming more consistent with the rest of the operating system.
WhatsApp, the limit for file sharing is increasing from 100MB to 2GB

The same source (the prolific WABetaInfo) also reported an even more interesting novelty: the ability to send files up to 2 GB in size. This feature has been spotted by the source on clients in Argentina, where a limited test is currently underway to a few select users who can share media files up to 2GB. Currently, the sharing limit for media files on WhatsApp is 100 MB, a much more restrictive threshold.

Threshold that becomes even more restrictive if we consider that WhatsApp’s direct competitor, Telegram, has already been allowing files of up to 2GB to be shared for about two years. As usual, however, the source warns that the selected test means everything and nothing: on the one hand WhatsApp is interested in aligning itself with the competition, on the other hand, however, the company could decide – following the test results – to cancel the changes and do not implement them on the final client.

Among the other news coming to WhatsApp we have the Reactions, which will allow you to reply to a message through a sort of icon that depicts an emotion, or the Multi-device Compatibility 2.0, which will allow you to use the same WhatsApp account on two different phones and, remaining at Apple, it could enable the possibility of seeing a WhatsApp app also for the various iPad models.

Instagram changes everything: ” Favorites ” and ” Followed ” arrive!

In the coming days there will be a revolution on Instagram, the social media par excellence. The feed, that is the screen that includes to see the sections and the contents, will come alive with two new ones that will allow users to better follow the contents and above all customize and all have greater control of the whole experience. Here come Favorites and Followed, two new options to choose what to see in the feed.

Instagram: ” Favorites ” and ” Followers ” arrive
Instagram said it dares to want all people the ability to personalize their Instagram experience even more and make it easy for them to find the most interesting content. And this is so because with the two new sections it will be possible to have a better and more precise view of your feed.

In the meantime, know that the Instagram feed is a mix of photos and videos of the people followed, of suggested posts and more. Instagram has always worked to add more suggested posts based on interests, but in fact the new Favorites and Followed choices are a new way to discover the most recent posts of the people we follow.

By choosing the “Favorites” mode, the most recent posts of the profiles added in a previously created list will be shown, such as best friends or favorite creators. Additionally, Favorites account posts will appear higher in the traditional feed as well.

By choosing the “Followed” mode, however, the posts of the people we follow will be shown. Both the Favorites and the Followed modes will show the posts in chronological order, so you can always stay up to date on the latest news of the accounts that interest us most.

To choose between the two, just tap the Instagram logo in the top left mode and choose which one to view.

How the favorites list works
To see the most recent posts from profiles added to your favorites list, just select “Favorites”. Up to 50 accounts can be added to the list and changes can be made at any time. People will not be notified when they are added or removed from this list. The posts of the profiles in the Favorites list will also be displayed higher up in the home feed, in that of the “Followed” mode and will be identifiable by a star icon.

WhatsApp will release a function to create surveys within groups

WhatsApp is working to allow users to insert surveys within groups: this is what emerges from the latest beta for iOS analyzed by WABetaInfo. The ability to create surveys, rumor already circulated previously, has been confirmed by the presence of screens in the latest beta that show the creation process, with the possibility of asking a question and setting the default answers that the members of the group will be able to answer.

Surveys will be available only in groups and protected by end-to-end encryption: in other words, only users who participate in the group will be able to see the contents of the survey and the results. It is not known, however, when WhatsApp plans to enable this feature for the final version of the app.

Among the other innovations there would also be a tab called “community” which allows users to collect groups and communities for the purpose of better traceability. From the information available, it appears that the “community” card will replace the currently existing “room” card, taking its place.

The polls function will be very similar to what is already available in Telegram, which has already launched the possibility of creating polls within groups since 2018.

The ‘cover photos’ are coming to WhatsApp

There are several features coming to WhatsApp, and among them the development team is working on the cover photos. The “cover photos”, so we could translate them into Italian, will be used to enrich the profile of WhatsApp Business accounts in order to be more recognizable. Together with the “collections”, that is the new method for managing the Catalog, the novelty is designed to put users in contact with companies more and more so that the latter can offer a better support service via chat.

The team behind the messaging app is working to make it possible to configure a cover photo in WhatsApp Business company profiles, a feature that currently seems not to be provided for standard accounts. At the moment it is only present on some selected accounts of users who have decided to participate in the beta program, so not all participants can try it today on their devices. When enabled on your Business profile, the cover photo will be displayed behind the profile photo, and the ability to edit it.

The manager of the WhatsApp Business account can modify the cover photo, through a key represented by a stylized camera: the admin can select an already present photo or take a new one with the camera of the device in use. Once chosen, it will appear on the profile page of the account, along with the traditional profile photo that can also be entered today. The cover photo will be visible to all users who visit the WhatsApp Business account profile, both on iPhone and on any Android device.

As usual, the novelty has been spotted by the prolific WABetaInfo, which, however, does not have information regarding the timing of the release of the novelty. The cover photo is currently under development, and the company has not yet released official information on the matter. Like every feature under test (for example the Reactions on WhatsApp we talked about recently), developers could decide to delete it, without ever presenting it on the stable client for end users.

Bitcoin, mining contributes 0.08% of global CO2 emissions

CoinShares shared a new report in which it is estimated that Bitcoin’s mining activities emitted 42 million tons of carbon dioxide in the course of 2021. With global emissions of 49.36 billion tons of CO2, Bitcoin would therefore represent the source of 0.08% of total emissions. The CoinShares report comes at a time when the debate over Bitcoin’s energy consumption has heated up.

CoinShares data was collected using various estimates regarding the efficiency of the Bitcoin network, energy consumption, characteristics of the hardware used, all on a global scale. It is therefore possible that there is some discrepancy with the actual volume of CO2 emissions, but in any case the CoinShares estimate seems to coincide quite well with the sector data.

The report prepared by CoinShares also estimated the total electricity consumption at 89TWh, a value significantly lower than the Cambridge University estimates which are the most taken into consideration and which speak of an annual consumption exceeding 130TWh. In this case it would be 0.05% of the electricity consumed worldwide. According to data collected by CoinShares, 60% of Bitcoin’s mining business is powered by fossil fuels.

“Carbon emissions from the electricity suppliers that power the Bitcoin mining network are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. With 0.08% of global CO2 emissions, remove the entire mining network from global demand,” and depriving hundreds of millions of people of their only hope for a fair and accessible form of money would amount to nothing more than a rounding error, ”CoinShares comments.

Just in recent days, a group of eight members of the US Congress coordinated by Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the six largest Bitcoin mining companies in the world with a request to disclose detailed data on their energy consumption. This is a move that underlines the growing regulatory pressure on mining activities in the United States in a context where miners themselves are trying to commit themselves more and more to using ever greater proportions of energy from renewable sources.