| | | Good morning! Imagine you are a businessman (some of you might even be doing well). You have a product. Logic would dictate getting maximum eyeballs on it, would be a good idea. Greater the chance of relevance, and therefore demand. Correct? It would likely mean you’ll earn more. Let us get into further specifics. There is an app subscription you’re peddling. Wouldn’t you want your app to be available on as wide a scale as possible? Thereby, improving chances of discovery, interaction, and subscribers? So, what do you think Elon Musk did, now that he is desperate to sell the $11 (remember $8, that wasn’t true?) Twitter Blue subscription and stem an exodus of advertisers? You couldn’t have scripted this. Read: Twitter breaking client apps by lying about API rules has not impressed anyone In an undignified manner that is now typical to Twitter’s way of working, some third-party clients were restricted access, at first. Then came the final shutdown. You’d probably have used these clients too, popular ones including Twitterrific, Tweetbot, Fenix, Aviary, Birdie and Echofon. These were more than just apps, something we pointed out too. Twitterrific, for instance, had been around for 16 years doing what it does best. It is in fact no secret that the Twitter bird (something Musk has had to sell too, as he’s at the stage where even coffee machines are being sold to raise funds) was actually inspired by Twitterrific’s bluebird logo. Back in 2010. That’s where the word “tweet” also came from. Not from Twitter. The “pull-to-refresh” gesture that is widely used within the Twitter app (and indeed across Android and iPhone interactions), came from an app called Tweetie. So much so, in 2010, Twitter acquired the app and made it the official iPhone app. To many of us (millions of us; and I can tell you this, without having to rely on a scientific Twitter poll), these clients defined the Twitter experience much beyond Twitter’s capabilities. Free features, and paid layers. They were all there. Scheduling tweets, advanced attachment features, kept the feed order sane while Twitter experimented with recommendations, and left ads outside the door. And that is probably what irritated Musk the most. Read: Twitter revenue dropped 40% YoY, over 500 advertisers have paused spending: Report Twitter recognized how much traffic comes through from client apps. Hence the policy changes a few years ago. Made life easier for these apps. No one is denying Musk’s right to do business as he deems fit. After all, he paid much more for Twitter than it probably was worth. He should have our sympathies. He can’t cry over spilt milk. Just be peevish and cantankerous about it, at best. Business strategies and decisions aside, there is a way to do it all. The right way. At least, the right(er) way, if you want to be pedantic about the intersection of profit and goodwill. It would be too much to expect someone with the personality of Elon Musk to have any sense of history, let alone respect it. Musk, and his habit of abrupt wholesale changes (it is good to be agile, not good to be oblivious) has broken a support system that had been around for years. It’s helped the platform as much as it has helped the app developers. There must have been a way to work with them, in the pursuit for more advertisements and revenue. After this move, would developers really bother with investing their time and resources on a platform that is led by a haphazard leader? More to the point, less eyeballs on the platform now. The advertisers must be chuffed. | | KNOW  | | Android and iOS are the same? Remember all the memes (yes, here is a business leader who often talks via memes) and sermons about how Apple takes a cut and that spoils the calculations for every online app business? And that because of Apple’s tax, Twitter Blue on iPhone will cost $11 instead of $8 (I’d asked then how Tim Cook made a deal with Elon Musk where Apple now gets a cut from $11 instead of $8) Turns out now, even Android users will pay $11 for Twitter Blue. Thank you, Google tax? Deafening silence of any outrage and memes. Neither did Sundar Pichai invite Musk over to the Google headquarters to make him a deal that cannot be refused. What was that thing about hypocrisy? | | | | | Apple iPhone users, it may be time for an update. The iOS 16.3 update is now out with focus on privacy (as always, the suggestion remains the same – do backup your data, just in case something goes amiss). We had spoken about this last month. The Advanced Data Protection feature is now available in more countries – I can confirm that it is now Live in India as well. You’ll need to set this up in Settings > Your Profile > iCloud to get to this new feature. The iCloud encryption is expanded to include more of your stuff on iCloud, as well as support for physical hardware keys. | | | LEADERSHIP In the past few weeks, it has been nigh impossible to miss the big tech layoffs. Everyone’s been in on it. Meta, Google, Microsoft, Spotify, Amazon – basically, you name it. They’ve all been at it. I’d been keeping a close watch on what the big tech executives have been saying all this while. The same Silicon Valley folks many of us look up to (but then again, many of us also idolise cricketers, start-up founders and movie stars too). | | As far back as last November, Mark Zuckerberg said “sorry” and “no choice but to terminate the employees when the company is losing over $4M per day”. This, from a company that has been (and will continue to) shovel big money into a metaverse which is nowhere close to existing in the truest sense of the term. The billions of dollars put into the Reality Labs division, most of that money has been lost. | | | | | Microsoft cut 10,000 workers, which is about 5% of its workforce. That is, to save about $1.2 billion, with the extended consolidation of its hardware portfolio and leased office locations. Satya Nadella insists Microsoft “will continue to invest in strategic areas for our future.” Microsoft for fiscal 2022 reported $198 billion in revenue and $83 billion in operating income – Microsoft Cloud (revenue increased 32% to $91.2 billion), Office and cloud (revenue increased 12%), LinkedIn (revenue up 34%), Windows OEM licensing revenue (increase of 11%), Xbox (revenue up 3%) and search plus news advertising (revenue increased by 27%). | | | | | Google laying off 12,000 employees (shades of Twitter were apparent, as it unfolded on social media). In a letter to employees, Sundar Pichai said “I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI”. Google had reported in October that “third quarter revenues were $69.1 billion, up 6% versus last year or up 11% on a constant currency basis”. | | | | | “This year's review has been more difficult given the uncertain economy and that we've hired rapidly over the last several years,” Amazon’s Andy Jassie didn’t beat about the bush, in a message to employees. Amazon had reported a net income dip to $2.9 billion in Q3 2022, compared $3.2 billion in the same quarter in 2021. | Was there really a need to let so many people go? Or is it typical to the cyclical and emulation trend, where one doing it gives everyone else the pretext to follow suit – with extensive guidance on the vision for the future. It isn’t a question to be asked lightly. But I’m afraid, you’ll either never have a useful answer or even if you do, it wouldn’t matter one bit. As useful (or not) as ‘tough love’, isn’t it? This brings me to the name you wouldn’t have read so far, amidst this layoff doom and gloom. Apple. Since early last year, Apple has been treading carefully, with careful hiring, a stark contrast to the post-pandemic (that is also an illusion, be careful) ‘sprees’ some other tech companies went through. Now, the leader is standing up to be counted. Tim Cook will be taking a 50% pay cut in 2023, after shareholders expressed concern with certain revenue streams (supply chain issues and global economic slowdown as contributors). Basic pay and bonus components remain the same, what changes is the way shares are granted to him based on Apple’s performance. It would have been simpler (and easier for the bank account) to put some employees in front of a firing squad. Cook and Apple haven’t done that. A ray of hope, for the moment, as the rest of big tech copies each other | | | | COMMENCE Even as tech companies are slowly getting up to pace (wait for the barrage of smartphone launches in the coming weeks), Apple isn’t wasting any time getting things moving along. And old favorite is back, and well, there is the expected bad news (and new benchmarks to match up to) for the Intel and AMD powered Windows computing device ecosystem. Read: Apple launches first products of 2023, faster MacBook Pros and Mac minis added Notice how I didn’t specifically say laptops? That’s because apart from the serious power boost that the new MacBooks are getting, it is the Mac Mini on the desktop that may spring the biggest surprise. I’m yet to get my hands on it to have any sort of extensive experience with the Mac Mini, but the powerful M2 chip (the same which powers the MacBook Pro 13 and MacBook Air) gives even the base spec variant a serious edge over anything the Windows ecosystem has to offer just shy of the Rs 60,000 price point. It is another matter altogether that Windows PCs don’t yet have the Mac Mini form factor dialled in. As rare as they get. You’ll probably have to make do with all-in-ones, for a compact computing device. Pair this with something like the OnePlus Monitor X27 and your compact desktop is ready to rock and roll. Read: Apple HomePod is back, with the promise of better sound and more intelligence The HomePod is an old favorite. For the fans, the last few years weren’t easy. Discontinued in 2021, the HomePod Mini definitely unlocked new demographics for Apple but to be fair, provided scant reassurance to the fans of the larger sized predecessor. Now in its second generation, there’s more beyond the expected smart home upgrade and the smarts to figure its place in the room. While the first generation HomePod has seven tweeters along with a woofer, the new one makes do with five of the former alongside a high‑excursion woofer. The reason? Lesser but improved audio hardware which have been repositioned to eliminate reflections from the table, backed by new computational audio. It isn’t a case of lesser being inferior – in fact, far from it. We have noticed this successful trend of less is more for powerful audio, at least on the mass consumer side of things, over the past handful of years. We’ll wait to see if the new HomePod looks to build on that. | | KNOW MORE | | Netflix passwords have been the point of much inconvenience for the streaming giant. Millions of us are sharing one subscription between many friends. Each friend piggybacking on your subscription, is one lost business for the company. Netflix estimates this at 100+ million households. That is set to end. From Q1, the crackdown starts. If and when (it is more a case of when, and not if) Netflix does flag an offending account, the holder will have two choices – stop sharing their password and get the freeloaders to buy their own Netflix subscriptions; or pay more for the people who are along for the ride. Your choice. | | | | | Were you forwarded this email? Did you stumble upon it online? Sign up here. | | | | | | Get the Hindustan Times app and read premium stories | | | | | | View in Browser | Privacy Policy | Contact us You received this email because you signed up for HT Newsletters or because it is included in your subscription. Copyright © HT Digital Streams. All Rights Reserved | | | | |
