Beyond Cupertino

58 'Beyond Cupertino' stories February 2023 - May 2023

Beyond Cupertino is for tech news which has no Apple connection, but is sufficiently newsworthy or interesting to be worth including in the feed. Most of these pieces are asides, so easy to skip if they don’t interest you.

Twitter advertising now safe | People using smartphones

Twitter advertising now safer, says biggest spender; TikTok ban challenged in court [U]

Ben Lovejoy May 19 2023 - 6:06 am PT

4 Comments

Twitter advertising is now safer – or, at least, no longer “high risk” – according to the world’s biggest ad agency, GroupM. In other social media news, a group of TikTok creators has filed a lawsuit, calling Montana’s ban on the app “unconstitutional” …

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New Twitter CEO named, with likely moderation clashes ahead

Ben Lovejoy May 15 2023 - 5:11 am PT

8 Comments

As widely rumored, the new Twitter CEO has been named as former NBCUniversal advertising exec Linda Yaccarino. Platform owner Elon Musk was making good on a promise he made last year, to abide by the results of a poll telling him to resign as the company’s head …

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AI cannot be stopped, says Steve Wozniak; we must prepare for more convincing scams

Ben Lovejoy May 10 2023 - 5:12 am PT

2 Comments

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak (aka Woz) has said that the march of AI cannot be stopped – even though he has called for a pause in development – and that we must prepare ourselves for people abusing it to create harder-to-spot scams …

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Twitter emergency alerts | Hurricane Ida radar map

Twitter emergency alerts U-turn; Musk threatens NPR

Ben Lovejoy May 3 2023 - 5:18 am PT

17 Comments

Twitter emergency alerts were one of the casualties of the company starting to charge for the API access that allows automatic tweeting. Many public services and transport companies were facing unaffordable bills to continue to use the service.

Twitter has now announced a partial U-turn on this, though details remain unclear …

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Twitter Inc | Hand With Care message on box

Twitter Inc. ceases to exist; Musk’s messy battle with Substack

Ben Lovejoy Apr 11 2023 - 4:05 am PT

11 Comments

Twitter Inc. – the company that owned the social network purchased by Elon Musk – no longer exists, according to a court filing. Instead, Twitter is now directly owned by a new Musk company, X Corp …

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AI development beyond GPT-4 should be paused – Woz, Musk, academics

Ben Lovejoy Mar 29 2023 - 5:22 am PT

47 Comments

Woz calls for pause in AI development | Steve Wozniak

Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak has joined Elon Musk and leading AI academics in calling for a pause in advanced AI development. Specifically, the open letter asks for a minimum six-month pause in the development of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4 …

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Twitter now wants to become a payments platform to compete with Apple Pay and PayPal

Twitter timelines filled with Musk tweets; API change delayed; Chinese dissidents invisible

Ben Lovejoy Feb 14 2023 - 5:24 am PT

18 Comments

A significant number of users are finding that their Twitter timelines are dominated by tweets from Elon Musk.

It follows the company’s owner complaining to engineers that his tweets weren’t getting as much attention – firing a senior one who told him it wasn’t a technical issue, just people being less interested in what the billionaire had to say …

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Twitter earning millions | Birds fighting

Twitter earning millions from 10 unbanned users; engineers in Catch-22 position with Musk

Ben Lovejoy Feb 10 2023 - 5:21 am PT

26 Comments

Reinstating the accounts of ten users previously banned for hate speech or promoting dangerous conspiracy theories will see Twitter earning millions of dollars in additional ad revenue, according to a new report today.

A separate report says that Twitter engineers have been placed in an impossible position: Musk demanding changes which they cannot implement due to code freezes …

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Microsoft Activision acquisition provisionally blocked; might be forced to sell Call of Duty

Ben Lovejoy Feb 8 2023 - 6:13 am PT

6 Comments

The planned Microsoft Activision acquisition has been provisionally blocked by the UK’s antitrust watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) …

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Beyond Cupertino

Twitter advertising now safer, says biggest spender; TikTok ban challenged in court [U]

New Twitter CEO named, with likely moderation clashes ahead

AI cannot be stopped, says Steve Wozniak; we must prepare for more convincing scams

Polar Grit X2 arrives in the U.S.

STEPR Stair Climber: Buyers guide

Hyperice x Nike Hyperboot review - heat and compression you can walk in

Google Pixel Watch 4: Review roundup

Reebok launches smart ring and partnership with F45 to push into connected fitness

Twitter emergency alerts U-turn; Musk threatens NPR

Twitter Inc. ceases to exist; Musk’s messy battle with Substack

AI development beyond GPT-4 should be paused – Woz, Musk, academics

The FBI wants 'unjammable' drones

'Look-and-fly' vs 'Point-and-fly:' Comparing DJI and Antigravity's intuitive flight systems

Antigravity's A1 360 video drone is now available for purchase

DJI makes last-ditch plea to US security chiefs as ban deadline nears

Holiday drone shows are taking over America’s skies: Here’s where to watch

Twitter timelines filled with Musk tweets; API change delayed; Chinese dissidents invisible

Twitter earning millions from 10 unbanned users; engineers in Catch-22 position with Musk

Microsoft Activision acquisition provisionally blocked; might be forced to sell Call of Duty

SpaceX's Starship mishap could give Blue Origin the edge in stealing Artemis 3's landing…

There are now only two customers left for ULA's Atlas V rocket

What are Blue Origin's New Glenn goals for 2026?

Russia launches new crew to ISS

What are CubeSats and why did they become so popular?