Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 20

Reports indicate that Foxconn has exited a multi-billion project that was expected to ramp up microchip manufacturing in India.

CNN reports that Foxconn has pulled out of a $19.4 billion project that plans on constructing one of India's first microchip manufacturing plants, which is part of the country's widespread effort to make India one of the world's leading country's chip manufacturing.

A spokesperson for Foxconn, one of the world's leading electronics manufacturers, spoke to CNN and said that the decision to terminate the partnership between Foxconn and Vedanta, an Indian metals and energy conglomerate, was a "mutual agreement" and enables "explore more diverse development opportunities." Notably, the project is now being completely controlled by Vedanta, and according to Foxconn, the construction of fabrication plans in a "new geography is a challenge".

Elon Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro has sent a letter to Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg, threatening to sue Meta over its recently launched text-based app Threads.

The letter was obtained by Semafor and revealed that Twitter has "serious concerns" that Meta has engaged in "systematic, willful, and unlawful misappropriation of Twitter's trade secrets and other intellectual property" and that the company built Threads with the help of former Twitter staff.

The letter claims that Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees, which would have been easy considering Musk fired more than half of Twitter's staff (approximately 3,800 employees), and that these former Twitter staff had access to Twitter's trade secrets, confidential information, and still have ongoing obligations with Twitter. Twitter claims that Meta assigned these former Twitter staff to the development of Threads, which significantly fast-tracked the app's release.

Meta has launched its Twitter competitor called Threads, a text-based app that has full integration with Instagram.

Meta launched its new app on Wednesday on both iOS and Android, and since then, it has gained more than 30 million users and the title of "Twitter-killer". While the app has been criticized for its data tracking, which is no different than Instagram's data tracking, users seem to be enjoying the full Instagram integration that allows for seamless migration of followers from a user's Instagram account to their Threads account.

While many people are excited about the launch, Twitter certainly isn't, as a letter addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, obtained by Semafor, states Twitter believes Meta has misappropriated trade secrets along with other intellectual property. Notably, the letter claims that over the last year, Meta has been hiring former Twitter employees who had access to confidential company information, "owe ongoing obligations to Twitter", and "improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices."

A new report from Financial Times has revealed that Apple is suffering from production issues for its Vision Pro headset, which has caused the company to rein in its sales target for 2024.

The new report from FT states that Apple is experiencing Vision Pro production issues that can be traced back to the headset's complex design, which has led to many technical issues popping up with Apple's suppliers. Notably, Apple already reduced its sales target shortly after the company unveiled the Vision Pro, reducing its initial projection of 1 million units to 150,000 units within the first 12 months of the product launch.

Reports indicate that Apple has pushed back the launch of the Vision Pro to "early 2024" to give developers some time to create software/apps that can run on the company's new operating system VisionOS, which powers the Vision Pro headset.

Meta is currently preparing to launch its Twitter competitor, a brand new app that will be very similar to Twitter, but have full integration with Instagram.

The rumors seem to have been true, as parent company Meta is preparing to launch "Threads, an Instagram app". The company's answer to Twitter has appeared on the App Store and the Google Play Store, showcasing a brand new listing that reveals an app icon, description, images, release date, and a pre-download button (App Store listing).

Previous rumors indicated that Meta was preparing to release a new app that would be very similar to Twitter, but come with automatic integration with Instagram, as users will be able to instantly migrate their followers to the new platform. These rumors proved to be true as the screenshots provided in the App Store listing reveals a sign-in option with an Instagram handle and "follow the same accounts you follow on Instagram".

YouTube's parent company Google is testing out a new method of stopping ad blocker users from browsing countless YouTube's videos without being exposed to a single advertisement.

Google has been rolling out updates to YouTube to stop ad blockers from working, but it seems that just after a few days, the developers of these ad blockers just update the extensions, and the users are back to an advertisement-free experience on YouTube. Google obviously wants to stop this as it's costing the company potentially millions in advertising.

Now we are hearing about a new tactic from Google that was first spotted by BleepingComputer, which cited a Reddit user sharing a screenshot to the r/YouTube subreddit. The screenshot can be seen above and indicates that YouTube's video player will be "blocked after 3 videos".

Twitter owner Elon Musk has appeared on the 'Real Talk with Zuby' podcast, where he discussed the running cost of having freedom of speech as one of the main priorities on Twitter.

Musk recently sat down for the podcast and was asked about his thoughts on the line between keeping people on a social media platform, selling those people advertising while also making the platform an enjoyable place people can spend time. Musk went on to say that the company took a hit with advertising after the platform opened up its rules and regulations to allow more freedom of speech.

Musk said that Twitter's advertising in North America dropped by more than 50%. Advertiser spending in Europe on Twitter is down about 40%, according to Musk. The Twitter owner said that if the company continued on the same path when he took over in October 2022, it would still have a lot more of that now-missing revenue. Musk goes on to say, "Freedom of speech is pretty expensive". Adding, "Freedom of speech is currently costing about $2 billion a year."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has challenged Meta and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight that will be organized by UFC president Dana White and take place in Vegas.

How did this fight even start? The back and forth between Musk and Zuckerberg began when Mario Nawfal, an entrepreneur and CEO of IBC Group, tweeted about Meta's rumored new app that is meant to be the company's answer to Twitter. The new rumored app is called "Threads" and, according to leaks, will have automatic integration with Instagram, meaning Instagram users will be able to migrate all their followers over to their Threads accounts automatically.

These rumors caught the attention of Musk, who responded facetiously by saying, "I'm sure Earth can't wait to be exclusively under Zuck's thumb with no other options. At least it will be 'sane.' Was worried there for a moment 😅." This sparked a response from a Twitter user warning Musk that Zuckerberg to "be careful" as "Zuckerberg does jujitsu now", which Musk responded to by saying, "I'm up for a cage match if he is lol".

In what seems like a bunch of internet hot air, Elon Musk challenged Mark Zuckerberg to a cage fight, and Zuckerberg accepted, writing back, "Send me location".

Last week the internet was lit on fire when Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk challenged Meta and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg to cage fight, which Zuckerberg accepted by referencing UFC superstar Khabib Nurmagomedov's call out to Conor McGregor. Since the initial challenge, Musk has been revealing more details about the potential bout, tweeting it would be held in the Vegas octagon with MMA rules.

Speaking with TMZ, UFC president Dana White said that he has spoken to both Musk and Zuckerberg the day after the challenge was sent, and according to White, both participants are "absolutely dead serious" about getting in a ring with each other. According to the UFC president, Zuckerberg was the first to touch base with White asking if Musk was serious about the challenge. White said to the Meta CEO he would contact Musk and find out, which he did, and according to White, Musk's response was, "I'm dead serious".

Reports indicate that Google is currently testing a new online gaming experience that it plans on rolling out under its subsidiary company, YouTube.

A new report from The Wall Street Journal on Friday revealed that Google sent an email to its employees informing them to playtest a new product it's calling "Playables". As the report states, Playables is currently being tested, and employees that were invited have been instructed to explore and evaluate the gaming capabilities of the platform, which includes arcade titles such as Stack Bounce.

Notably, the titles that are available on the platform have been locked to web browsers only, with no word of an official YouTube client to launch larger games. For example, reports state that each title that is being play tested is playable through YouTube's web browser and Google's Android and Apple's iOS operating systems.