Let's Spill The Tea: Top Consumer Tech News From Last Week That You Should Know (April 13-20, 2024)

Author: Lekha Gupta | April 21, 2024 11:01am

Here’s what happened in the world of consumer tech in the last week:

Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google employees were reportedly arrested and placed on administrative leave after they staged 10-hour sit-ins at offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, to protest the $1.2 billion cloud contract with Israel.

Related: Elon Musk Reacts As Marc Andreessen Says Google Is ‘Literally Run By Employee Mobs’ With ‘Chinese Spies’ Scooping Up AI Chip Designs

SpaceX founder Elon Musk accepted a challenge from the Russian space agency chief, Yuri Borisov, who said Roscosmos’s Amur rocket can be reused up to five times more than the Falcon 9.

A Texas judge stopped the investigation of the media watchdog group Media Matters by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, dealing a second blow to Elon Musk in recent weeks.

Related: Tesla Stock Fell Over 9% After Past 4 Earnings Reports: Fund Manager Offers Advice On How Elon Musk Can Break Woeful Streak

Gaming

Sony Group Corporation (NYSE:SONY) is gearing up for the release of a more powerful version of its PlayStation 5 (PS5) console, possibly by the end of this year. 

The official Star Wars Twitter account just dropped a teaser trailer for an upcoming crossover event with Epic Games’ Fortnite, set to kick off on May 3, one day before Star Wars Day. HYPEX suggested lightsabers, force powers, and a Chewbacca skin, fueling fan excitement for the collaboration.

Related: BAFTA Games Awards 2024: Guess Which Video Game Took 5 Prizes Home

Nintendo Co (OTC:NTDOY) showcased adorable indie games like Little Kitty, Big City, Lorelei, and the Laser Eyes, offering diverse experiences for players.

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA) unveiled plans for an open-world “Black Panther” game developed by Cliffhanger Games through a recent job listing.

Former Microsoft Blizzard President Mike Ybarra has an interesting idea: He suggested adding a tipping feature to video games. Not everyone will like the idea, but the former Blizzard president believes it’s different from other situations when tipping feels forced.

Smartphones

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) reportedly experienced a significant decline in iPhone shipments, while its Android competitors saw a rise. Notably, Apple’s iPhone shipments fell by nearly 10% in the first quarter, while the global smartphone market saw a 7.8% increase in shipments, reaching 289.4 million units.

Also Read: Potential iPhone Killer? Humane AI Pin’s Design, Interface ‘Inherently Flawed,’ Says Gurman: ‘Can Merely Be An Extra Accessory’

Apple CEO Cook revealed potential plans to explore manufacturing opportunities in Indonesia. This announcement follows his meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies Co. has launched its latest series of smartphones, the Pura 70, to further challenge Apple in the high-end segment of the Chinese market amid falling iPhone sales.

Meta

Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META) revealed that its new large language model, Llama 3, has surpassed other AI models in benchmark tests. However, OpenAI’s latest flagship model, GPT-4, is notably missing from its comparison. It will integrate real-time search results from Google and Bing.

Anduril Industries and Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey accused Meta  CTO Andrew Bosworth of lying and spreading false information about him.

Social Media

Elon Musk has donated to and promoted secure messaging app Signal to take on WhatsApp, but another rival is closing the gap with the Meta Platforms Inc.-owned service.

Also Read: Telegram Founder Tells Tucker Carlson That Billion-User Platform Operates Lean, HR-Free With Only 30 Staff: ‘I Am The Only Product Manager’

Apple has removed WhatsApp and Threads from its China App Store in response to a Chinese government order.

Music

Apple Music‘s teams have collaborated with Taylor Swift to prepare her upcoming album and promotional campaign well before the release date.

Spotify Technologies SA (NYSE:SPOT) has been investing in artificial intelligence and machine learning for over a decade, and its latest AI DJ feature is a significant step towards personalizing the music streaming experience for 600 million subscribers.

The release of Amazon’s Prime Video “Fallout” TV series has sparked a significant resurgence in player numbers across Microsoft’s Bethesda’s Fallout video game franchise, even for titles released years ago.

Tech

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) Twitch is set to launch its new TikTok-style discovery feed after a year of testing, bringing separate feeds for clips and livestreams to all users by the end of this month.

Popular tech YouTuber MKBHD, or Marques Brownlee, kicked off a storm on social media after his Humane AI Pin review. He called it the “worst product” he has ever reviewed, weeks after his Fisker Ocean SUV review.

Artificial Intelligence

Mistral AI CEO Arthur Mensch threw shade at rival OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, saying that the pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI) is just an attempt at “creating God.“

Elon Musk expressed concern over the potential dangers of AI being trained to lie for political correctness and suggested that it could be “very dangerous” and “kill millions” in the process.

Read: Former OpenAI Researcher Who Predicted There’s A 50% Chance AI Could Kill Us All Is Now Heading US AI Safety Institute

JPMorgan & Chase Co. (NYSE:JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon has outlined his vision for the future of money in an AI-driven world, emphasizing the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize the financial sector.

Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) significant $13 billion investment in OpenAI will not undergo a formal investigation by the European Union’s merger watchdogs, alleviating concerns about potential regulatory interventions. 

Photo via Pixabay

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