John Routledge - Technoshia

31 Jan

Universal Music threatens to pull songs from TikTok over payment terms

John RoutledgeLatest News

Universal Music Group (UMG) is threatening to pull all of its music from TikTok today following a breakdown in negotiations over royalties, the company wrote in an open letter. That would mean TikTok creators would lose access to songs from stars including Taylor Swift, Billy Eilish, The Weeknd, Drake and others. With UMG's deal with TikTok set to expire, the sides…

31 Jan

Microsoft’s gaming revenue was up 49 percent in Q2, mostly thanks to the Activision deal

John RoutledgeLatest News

Microsoft posted another blowout earnings report for Q2 of the 2024 fiscal year, with revenues of $62 billion (up 18 percent from last year) and profits of $21.9 billion (a 33 percent increase). But really, the most interesting thing about this quarter is that we finally get to see how the $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition affects the $3 trillion…

31 Jan

Samsung’s annual profits continued to decline in 2023

John RoutledgeLatest News

Samsung has failed to recover from the sharp decline in profit it experienced in 2022. In its latest earnings report, the Korean company has reported KRW 258.94 trillion ($194 billion) in annual revenue and KRW 6.57 trillion ($4.9 billion) in operating profit for the fiscal year of 2023. Those are markedly smaller numbers than the previous fiscal year's, especially the…

31 Jan

Elon Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay package has been tossed out by the court

John RoutledgeLatest News

In 2018, Tesla awarded Elon Musk a $56 billion pay package that helped propel him to the top of world's richest lists. Now, a judge in Delaware has rendered the deal between the company and the CEO to be invalid and called the compensation an "unfathomable sum" that's unfair to shareholders. As initially seen and reported by Chancery Daily on…

30 Jan

How to watch the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, Discord, Snap and X testify about child safety

John RoutledgeLatest News

The CEOs of five social media companies are headed to Washington to testify in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about child safety. The hearing will feature Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, TikTok CEO Shou Chew, Discord CEO Jason Citron and X CEO Linda Yaccarino.The group will face off with lawmakers over their record on child exploitation and…

30 Jan

Microsoft’s gaming revenue is up 49 percent in Q2, mostly thanks to the Activision deal

John RoutledgeLatest News

Microsoft posted another blowout earnings report for Q2 of the 2024 fiscal year, with revenues of $62 billion (up 18 percent from last year) and profits of $21.9 billion (a 33 increase). But really, the most interesting thing about this quarter is that we finally get to see how the $68.7 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition affects the $3 trillion company.…

30 Jan

PayPal is laying off 2,500 employees

John RoutledgeLatest News

PayPal is laying off nine percent of its workforce, the company’s CEO Alex Chriss told staff in a letter on Tuesday that PayPal made public hours later. The decision will impact about 2,500 employees, who will find out their fate between today and the end of the week, Bloomberg reported earlier. PayPal's layoffs come almost exactly a year after the…

30 Jan

Microsoft’s legal department allegedly silenced an engineer who raised concerns about DALL-E 3

John RoutledgeLatest News

A Microsoft manager claims OpenAI’s DALL-E 3 has security vulnerabilities that could allow users to generate violent or explicit images (similar to those that recently targeted Taylor Swift). GeekWire reported Tuesday the company’s legal team blocked Microsoft engineering leader Shane Jones’ attempts to alert the public about the exploit. The self-described whistleblower is now taking his message to Capitol Hill.“I…

30 Jan

Block is reportedly laying off around 1,000 workers

John RoutledgeLatest News

Block is the latest notable tech company to lay off hundreds of workers, according to reports. CEO Jack Dorsey is said to have informed employees that the company is firing a "large number" of them, with Cash App, Square and the foundational (i.e. operations) teams bearing the brunt of the impact. According to a Business Insider source, Block is letting…

30 Jan

The Kobo Libra 2 drops to its lowest price of the year so far

John RoutledgeLatest News

The Kobo Libra 2 ereader has dropped to its lowest price of the year so far. You can grab one via Amazon for $170, which is a discount of $20. This matches pricing from the holiday season for the water-resistant reading tablet.Kobo’s Libra 2 easily made our list of the best ereaders for a number of reasons. First of all,…