Here’s what happened in the world of consumer tech in the last week:
After ditching its electric vehicle plans, Apple Inc. AAPL could rekindle interest in the segment if rumors are anything to go by. A report said late Monday that Cupertino was in talks to forge a partnership with Rivian Automotive, Inc RIVN.
President Joe Biden and Microsoft President Brad Smith are set to announce a significant $3.3 billion investment in Wisconsin, a move that contrasts with former President Donald Trump’s failed tech project in the same state.
According to media reports, the sensitive details of an undisclosed number of active U.K. military personnel have been compromised in a major breach of data security and the Chinese state was behind the cyber attack.
Tech
In the latest development, Microsoft Corp. MSFT is under scrutiny from a Spanish startup group, which has filed a complaint against the tech giant’s cloud practices. This marks another challenge for Microsoft’s rapidly expanding cloud computing services.
The media relations chief of web search giant Baidu Inc. BIDU, known as China’s Google, has apparently resigned due to the controversial and demanding “996” work culture in the Asian country.
Daniel McKinnon, who worked at Meta from 2018 to 2022 and later at Google for two years before returning to Meta in February to work on the company’s Ray-Ban AI glasses, highlighted the differences between the two tech giants in a blog post last month.
Gaming
Microsoft is shuttering several Bethesda studios and merging at least two — Roundhouse Games and ZeniMax Online Studios — sending shockwaves through the gaming industry.
Also, Microsoft abruptly halted Redfall’s development, cancelling DLC, including an offline mode. Despite promises and assurances, Redfall’s troubled history, marked by criticism and slow updates, reflects broader challenges faced by Xbox.
Microsoft secured agreements to add Lords of the Fallen and Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 to its Game Pass subscription service. Confirmation of this deal came from CI Games in a financial note on May 3, though Microsoft has yet to make an official announcement.
Following Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, there was speculation about whether the tech giant would continue releasing first-party games such as Call of Duty on Xbox Game Pass simultaneously with official release dates.
Final Fantasy 14, the Final Fantasy installment, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Square Enix Holdings Co. is under a global Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.
Japanese multinational consumer electronics and video game company Nintendo has announced plans to unveil a successor to its popular Switch console during the fiscal year ending March 2025.
Nintendo also said it will no longer support X/Twitter integration on Switch as of June 10, mirroring similar actions by PlayStation and Xbox in 2023.
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During Electronic Art’s EA quarterly earnings call, CEO Andrew Wilson announced the development team for the upcoming Battlefield game was the largest in the franchise’s history. The next Battlefield installment announcement is anticipated in 2024, as the company confirms the final season for Battlefield 2042.
Fans of the Grand Theft Auto series were sent into a frenzy when the Rockstar Games website briefly revealed placeholder spots for four screenshots, cover art, and a release date for GTA 6.
Music & Streaming Platform
Spotify Technology SA SPOT is intensifying its legal battle with Apple in the European Union, with the European Commission now considering a second investigation into Apple’s new music streaming app policy.
Walt Disney Company DIS and Warner Bros. Discovery WBD are joining forces to introduce a new streaming bundle that will include Disney+, Hulu and Max. The bundle is set to be available in the U.S. this summer.
Walt Disney and Comcast Corporation CMCSA are seeking a financial advisor to resolve a dispute over the valuation of the former’s 33% stake in the streaming platform Hulu.
Social Media
TikTok filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government, refusing to comply with the new law that requires the sale of its popular video-sharing app. The company has made it clear that it will not be able to sell its algorithm, which is the primary concern of the US government.
Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO and xAI founder Elon Musk got fact-checked on his own social media platform, X, formerly Twitter, after he raised concerns about the security of messaging app Signal. On Tuesday, Musk took to X to express his doubts about the security of the Signal messaging app, citing “known vulnerabilities.”
In a surprising turn of events, Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down from the board of Bluesky, the decentralized social media platform he backed.
Twitter improved a feature to boast about — the ability to post several hours-long videos on the social media platform.
YouTube, an online video-sharing platform owned by Alphabet Inc.‘s GOOG Google rolled out a new feature, “Jump ahead,” for its Premium subscribers. Initially tested in March, the “Jump ahead” feature is now available to Premium subscribers through youtube.com/new.
Smartphones
The Taiwanese company responsible for manufacturing the majority of Apple’s smartphones reported a 19% surge in monthly revenue to $15.8 billion (NT$510.9 billion) in April 2024, compared to $13.3 billion (NT$429.2 billion) in the same month last year.
Apple unveiled the highly anticipated iPad Air 6 and iPad Pro after a gap of 18 months at the “Let Loose” event. Also, Apple expanded its Apple Pencil lineup, offering four distinct models with varying features and compatibility.
Also Read: Tim Cook’s Potential Retirement Sparks Successor Search At Apple: ‘Not Clear How This All Pans Out’
Deepwater Asset Management’s managing partner, Gene Munster, predicted that iPads will witness a significant surge in sales this year; however, the future might be a bit difficult. Munster also shared his insights on the future of iPads, saying that it will witness an increase in sales in June and September, but the “tailwind will likely fade in 2025.”
Apple‘s first-generation mixed-reality headset, Vision Pro, continues to gain popularity among surgeons in India, with over 30 “keyhole” surgeries performed using the device.
Tech Youtuber Marques Brownlee reviewed the latest iPad Pro and iPad Air models, saying that no matter how powerful the devices are, they are still iPads. He started by saying, “We’ve been saying this for years: it kind of doesn’t matter how powerful they make the iPad; it’s still an iPad.“
Musk’s AI-powered chatbot, Grok, apparently started predicting the future as it summarizes Apple’s upcoming launch of new iPad products.
Apple issued an apology for a controversial advertisement for its new iPad Pro, which has now been pulled from TV.
Apple sprung a surprise, with its top-tier iPhone 15 Pro Max emerging as the top-selling device in the first quarter of 2024 despite a slump in iPhone sales globally.
Apple is reportedly working on its own artificial intelligence chips for data centers, a move that could potentially disrupt the market. However, the project’s future is still uncertain. The project, codenamed ACDC, is an extension of Apple’s existing in-house chip efforts for its devices.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Elon Musk shared his views on the impact of the AI revolution on the Strauss-Howe generational theory. He believes that AI will significantly impact the cycle of same-aged groups with distinct behavior patterns, which change every 20 years.
Elon Musk threw shade at rival Mark Zuckerberg after Meta Platforms Inc. META was slapped with a $37.2 million fine by Turkey’s competition board. Musk agreed with a post on X that “Meta can’t be trusted” after it was fined by Turkey over its data sharing practices.
Shoshana Davis, founder of career consultancy Fairy Job Mother, observed a surge in identical cover letters and job application responses, indicating the misuse of AI tools. A Canva survey revealed that 45% of job seekers have used AI to build or improve resumes.
David A Steinberg, CEO of Zeta Global, anticipates a significant shift in Wall Street jobs due to the influence of AI. “We are going to see a lot of jobs destroyed, but a lot of jobs created,” he said.
Renowned musician and tech entrepreneur William Adams, professionally known as Will.i.am, recently expressed concerns that over-regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) could potentially hinder innovation.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt expressed his belief that the U.S. is significantly ahead of China in artificial intelligence. “In the case of artificial intelligence, we are well ahead, two or three years probably, of China, which in my world is an eternity.“
Vivienne Ming, co-founder and chief scientist of Dionysus Health, emphasized the pervasive influence of AI in our daily lives and advocated for a constitution to regulate its application.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced plans to introduce a legislative roadmap for AI regulation in the U.S., looking to catch up to the European Union, which unveiled its framework in March.
OpenAI is reportedly set to announce its AI-powered search product on Monday, potentially intensifying its rivalry with Alphabet Inc.’s. OpenAI COO Brad Lightcap revealed that the startup’s biggest consumer product so far, ChatGPT, is not a “long-term” engagement model.
Elon Musk accused OpenAI of hypocrisy after the company reportedly filed a copyright complaint against a subreddit for using its logo.
TikTok will automatically label AI-generated content. This move comes amid growing concerns about the spread of online disinformation and deepfakes.
OpenAI unveiled new AI tools that can detect if an image was created using its DALL-E AI image generator. The company has also introduced advanced watermarking techniques to better identify the content it generates.
In a recent development, Informa, a U.K.-based publishing and exhibitions company, has partnered with Microsoft valued at over $10 million. The deal will grant Microsoft access to Informa’s data, aiming to bolster its artificial intelligence systems.
The CEO of Arm Holdings ARM suggested that NVIDIA Corporation’s NVDA Grace Blackwell could lead to a significant uptick in the adoption of ARM technology in data centers for AI applications.
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