Elon Musk has served as Twitter’s CEO, or Chief Twit, since he bought the company in October. But now, Musk is reportedly looking for his replacement, unnamed sources tell CNBC.

The publication states the search began before Musk posted a poll on Sunday, asking users if he should step down as CEO. The poll received 17.5 million votes, with 57.5 percent of respondents answering “yes.” 

While Musk promised to “abide by the results of this poll,” he has a history of not following through on tweets. Following the results, Musk, in true fashion, said he’ll restrict who can vote in polls. 

It’s unclear what requirements candidates need to successfully receive a shot to be Twitter’s CEO.

Image credit: Shuttertstock 

Source: CNBC

Google Play Pass released in 2019 as a membership service that gives subscribers access to numerous Android games and applications. It costs $5.99/month and is a direct competitor to Apple’s Apple Arcade, which also costs $5.99/month in Canada.

Android users can currently get a 90 percent off promotion on Play Pass, and subscribe to the service for just $0.68/month for three months, as shared by RedFlagDeals user ‘izarzuela.’

To claim the offer, open the Google Play app on your Android smartphone and tap of “Shop the hottest deals of the year on Play.” Scroll down and you should see a “90% off play pass” limited-time offer.

In total, you’ll be able to enjoy four months of service for essentially nothing. You’ll get the first month of service under a free trial, while the following three months would only cost you $2.04 ($0.68 per month). Following the three months, the subscription cost would go back up to $5.99/mo ($6.77/mo after tax).

The promotion ends on January 3rd.

Image credit: RedFlagDeals user ‘izarzuela’

Source: RedFlagDeals user ‘izarzuela’

After Twitter CEO Elon Musk lost a poll asking if he should step down as head of the company, he says the rules determining who can vote in Twitter polls in the future will change.

Twitter user ‘Unfiltered☢️Boss’ suggested Musk lock polls so that only Blue subscribers can vote in “policy related polls,” writing that subscribers “actually have skin in the game.” While I don’t think paying a monthly subscription fee to use a social network run (poorly) by the world’s formerly richest man counts as having “skin in the game,” Musk appears to agree with the idea of restricting voting to paying users. In response to Unfiltered☢️Boss, Musk tweeted, “Good point. Twitter will make that change.”

Of course, it’s worth keeping in mind what kicked all this off: Musk having a public tantrum and banning several journalists who had been critical of Musk, as well as rival platforms. As a quick refresher, last week Musk alleged a stalker used information from the ElonJet account run by Jack Sweeney to follow a car carrying Musk’s child. The ElonJet account used publicly available information to share details about the flights of Musk’s private jet.

However, despite the dubious (at best) link between the stalker incident and Sweeney’s account, Twitter introduced a new policy prohibiting the sharing of real-time information, banned ElonJet and Sweeney, then started banning journalists who covered the story and accounts that tweeted links to Sweeney’s ElonJet accounts on other social media platforms. That included Mastodon, the much-hyped possible Twitter replacement. Twitter also introduced a policy prohibiting linking to other social media platforms.

Following outcry, Twitter rolled back the policies, Musk apologized, and he promised there would be a vote for major policy changes in the future. Musk then started a poll asking if he should step down as head of Twitter, with 57.5 percent of the over 17.5 million votes being in favour of Musk stepping down. Although apparently, the vote may not have mattered — reports indicate Musk started hunting for a new CEO before posting the poll.

Twitter relaunched its Blue subscription on December 12th at a higher cost of $10/mo for Canadians who subscribe through the Twitter website and $15/mo for those who subscribe through the App Store on iOS. Currently, the Twitter Blue subscription doesn’t offer much beyond adding a blue checkmark to subscribed accounts and the promise of future features like reduced ads, priority in replies, and more. Further, despite positioning the new Blue subscription as verifying users with their phone number, Twitter’s about page for Blue notes that Twitter won’t review accounts to ensure they’re authentic.

You can follow along with the latest insanity from Musk’s Twitter here.

Source: @elonmusk

Have you ever wondered why certain videos pop up on your For You page (FYP) as you endlessly scroll through TikTok?

According to a recent blog post the company shared, a new tool will provide the exact details.

Here’s how to access it:

Tap on the share panel while in your For You feed
Tap the question mark labelled “why this video” to reveal why the video came up on your page

Getting into the specifics, what you see comes down to rankings based on your activity, which measures a bunch of factors, including how much time you spend on the app, user interaction, and popular content in your region.

“This feature is one of many ways we’re working to bring meaningful transparency to the people who use our platform, and builds on a number of steps we’ve taken towards that goal,” the company said in the blog post.

TikTok says it will roll out the feature “over the coming weeks” but didn’t provide specifics. It’s the latest development coming from the social media company, which recently announced it’s testing horizontal full-screen mode.

Source: TikTok

It looks like Google could switch the primary camera in its next flagships, likely called the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro.

While still months away, we’ve gotten a glimpse of some camera details thanks to developer and leaker Kuba Wojciechowski. Wojciechowski claims to have obtained an “unobfuscated version” of the Google Camera Go app, which shares resources with the regular Google Camera app available on Pixel phones. In the Camera Go app’s code, Wojciechowski found references to ‘Shiba’ and ‘Husky,’ which are likely the codenames for the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro, respectively (Shiba and Husky turned up in a previous leak with details about the RAM and screen resolutions of the devices).

Long story short, courtesy of Google we got a clean, unobfuscated version of Google Camera Go, that includes references that seemingly confirm that flagship Pixels in 2023 – Husky and Shiba – will support staggered HDR. pic.twitter.com/YdaWTlGznN

— kamila 🌸🏳️‍⚧️ (@Za_Raczke) December 19, 2022

The references Wojciechowski found mention that Shiba and Husky support ‘staggered HDR,’ a different approach to HDR than what Pixel phones currently use. When you take a picture on a Pixel phone, the camera captures long and short exposures in quick succession, then stitches together the different exposures to create the final image. Staggered HDR, on the other hand, captures the long and short exposure at the same time, reducing the time taken to capture the image and, by extension, reducing the likelihood of ghosting or strobe effect caused when the phone can’t match the two exposures together.

The thing is, the camera sensor Google used in the primary camera for the Pixel 7 series and Pixel 6 series — the 50-megapixel Samsung GN1 — doesn’t support staggered HDR at a hardware level. That means if the code snippet is accurate, the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro will need a different camera sensor to support staggered HDR. Android Police points to Samsung’s GN2 sensor, noting it’s similar to the GN1 but offers staggered HDR support.

Aside from a change to the sensor, this would mark a larger shift for Google. The company previously stuck with the same camera hardware over multiple iterations of its phones, focusing on machine learning and software instead of hardware upgrades. For example, the camera sensor introduced with the Pixel 3 stuck around until Google switched to the GN1 with the Pixel 6.

Ultimately, it’ll be interesting to see what comes of the GN2 switch, if anything. We’re still really early in the rumour cycle for the Pixel 8 series, which likely won’t come out until the fall of 2023. A lot can change, so I wouldn’t bet on a new camera sensor just yet.

Source: @Za_Racze Via: Android Police

Ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in the new year, Lenovo has rolled out a ton of product announcements. The announcements include no less than six (six!) laptops, a desktop, a tablet, and a few monitors. And we’re likely to get more announcements from Lenovo related to CES come January.

Since we’ve got so many products to go over, let’s just dive in.

Laptops

First up, we’ve got the Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5/5i, IdeaPad Slim 5/5i, and IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook. The Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 and 5i (pictured in the header image) come in 14- and 16-inch sizes in either ‘Artic Grey’ or ‘Frost Blue.’ Unfortunately, only the 16-inch Pro 5i will be available in North America. It offers “up to the latest Intel Processor” and “up to an Nvidia GeForce Next-Gen Laptop,” although Lenovo didn’t specify which CPUs and GPUs would actually be available.

Other IdeaPad Pro 5i features include a 25 percent larger touchpad, expandable SSD storage, up to 120Hz refresh rate, and a QHD+ resolution. The IdeaPad Pro 5i that will be available in North America will start at $1,499.99 USD (roughly $2,049.08 CAD) and will be available starting in May 2023.

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i

There’s also the IdeaPad Slim 5 and 5i Gen 8 in 14- and 16-inch variants (only the 16-inch models will be available in North America). The IdeaPad Slim’s OLED display offers up to a 2.5k resolution with 400 nits of brightness. Moreover, the Slim 5i sports up to the latest Intel Core processor, while the Slim 5 offers upto the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPUs. They come in three colours — ‘Violet,’ ‘Cloud Grey,’ and ‘Abyss Blue.’

The IdeaPad Slim 5i will start at $749.99 USD (about $1,024.53 CAD) and the Slim 5 will start at $649.99 USD (approximately $887.93 CAD). Both will be available in May 2023.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3i

Finally, the IdeaPad Flex 3i Chromebook offers a 360-degree hinge for 2-in-1 use. Lenovo says the Flex 3i’s battery lasts up to 12 hours on a charge and it runs on the latest N-series Intel CPU. The Flex 3i will start at $349.99 USD (about $478.11) when it becomes available in May 2023.

Alongside the consumer laptops, Lenovo showed several ThinkPad laptops aimed more at businesses. There’s the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8, and ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3. The X1 laptops are built on Intel’s Evo platform and offer the latest generation of up to Intel Core i7 CPUs and up to 64GB of RAM. All three will be available in April 2023 starting at:

ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 – $1,729 USD (about $2,361.92 CAD)
ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 – $1,859 USD (roughly $2,539.51 CAD)
ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 – $1,649 USD (approximately $2,252.63 CAD)

Desktop and tablets

Lenovo IdeaCentre Mini 5i

The desktop unveiled by Lenovo is the IdeaCentre Mini 5i, a tiny, Mac mini-style PC. It sports a built-in power supply unit and a chassis that Lenovo says can be easily opened, allowing users to access the dual-vortex cooling fan and memory chip. It’s got the latest Intel Core CPU, two DDR4 memory chips, up to 1TB of SSD storage, Wi-Fi 6 support, and more.

The IdeaCentre Mini will start at $649.99 USD (roughly $887.93 CAD) and will be available starting Q2 2023.

Lenovo Tab M9

Lenovo also showed off its Tab M9 tablet running Android 12. Sporting a MediaTek Helio G80 Octa-Core CPU, 128GB of storage and a 9-inch ID display, the Tab M9 looks like a decent option for watching Netflix and playing games. It will cost $139.99 USD (about $191.23 CAD) and is expected to be available starting in Q2 2023.

Monitors

Lenovo’s P49w-30 is a one wide boy

Lenovo listed several monitors, but the only one really worth writing about was the wild ThinkVision P49w-30. It’s a 49-inch ultrawide display with up to 13 ports, two of which support Thunderbolt 4 with up to 100W of power delivery and that can be used to daisy chain other Thunderbolt 4 monitors (if you even have room for one after placing this behemoth on your desk).

Lenovo expects the P49w-30 to be available starting in June 2023 for $1,699.99 USD (about $2,322.29 CAD)

BBC Studios and ITV have revealed what content is coming to BritBox, a British programming-focused streaming service, in January.

BritBox, which costs $9.99/month (or $99.99 per year), offers access to series like Doctor Who, Emmerdale and Five by Five. In August, the service will add content like Pride and Prejudice, About A Boy, Mr. Bean’s Holiday and more.

Check out everything coming to the streaming platform next month below:

Vera: Season 7 (January 1st)
Seekers (January 6th)
Here We Go (January 10th)
Stonehouse (January 17th)
Vera: Season 12 (Sometime in January)

Apple has some great deals on discounted MacBook Air laptops and accessories through Amazon Canada. If you buy today it seems the massive online retailer can ship to you before the 25th.

Check out the deals below.

Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad for $124 (save 17%)
Magic Keyboard – French for $94 (save 21%)
Magic Keyboard – US English for $94 (Save 21%)
Apple Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad for $124 (Save 17%)
Apple Magic Mouse (Wireless, Rechargable) for $79.99 (save 10%)
2020 Apple MacBook Air Laptop for $1,149 (Save 12%)
2020 Apple MacBook Air: Apple M1 Chip, 13″ Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage for $1,149 (save 12%)
2020 Apple MacBook Air: Apple M1 Chip, 13″ Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage for $1,149 (save 12%)
Silver 2020 Apple MacBook Air: Apple M1 Chip, 13” Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage for $1,149 (save 12%)
Gold 2020 Apple MacBook Air Laptop: Apple M1 Chip, 13″ Retina Display, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage for $1,149 (save 12%)

MobileSyrup utilizes affiliate partnerships. These partnerships do not influence our editorial content, though we may earn a commission on purchases made via these links that helps fund the journalism provided free on our website.

Source: Amazon Canada

The IRS accidentally releases private data, Amazon and Reddit hit the list for companies with the lowest retention rates, and South Australia powers the state for a week with green energy. 

 

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Tuesday December 20 and I am your host, Ashee Pamma.

Confidential data of over 100,000 taxpayers inadvertently published by the IRS over the summer was accidentally republished in late November and remained online til this month. According to the IRS, data from Form 990-Ts that was supposed to stay private had been taken offline but made its way back to the IRS site when a contractor uploaded an old file which included most of the private information, The agency had to make Form 990-Ts filed by nonprofit groups available online but is supposed to keep the form filed by individuals private. According to Bloomberg, an internal programming error caused the September release of private forms along with the ones filed by non profit groups. In a letter written to congressional leaders last week, this time, the contractor tasked with managing the database reuploaded the older file with the original data instead of a new file that filtered out the forms that were supposed to stay private.

 

A report from Work and Money reveals the tech companies with the lowest retention rates. Out of 19 companies, Shopify and ByteDance tied at 14th place citing long hours and overworking for the low score. Meta was ranked at 12th place with employees claiming that the workplace is not a positive environment. Other notable tech companies on the list include Alphabet, Zoom, Reddit and Amazon. Amazon made the list for employee burnout and extremely low pay. 

 

South Australia has been effectively powered by green energy for a week and one expert is predicting that it could extend to a month by 2023. From December 12 to 19, National Energy Market data showed wind and solar contributed on average 103.5 per cent towards the state’s energy demand. Coal energy was not used at all during the period and gas accounted for 5.9 per cent of electricity when renewable sources were not enough to power the state throughout the night. The average cost of a megawatt hour dropped to -$26.35. In addition, ABC News reported that the Head of the Victoria Energy Policy Centre at Victoria University, Bruce Mountain, said this milestone is another step on the renewable energy journey. He added that South Australia could potentially see the state powered using green energy for a month by early next year.

 

A new artificial intelligence tool called ChatGPT has the ability to solve math problems, write college essays and write research papers. However, following the release of the text-based system to the public last month, some educators have noted that  these AI systems have the ability to transform academia in good and bad ways. According to NPR, one professor named Ethan Mollick from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, said the tool has become a popular way to help students cheat by plagiarizing the AI-written work. But there are benefits to it as well. Mollick has used it as his own teacher’s assistant, for help with crafting a syllabus, lecture, an assignment and a grading rubric for MBA students. 

 

That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Ashee Pamma.

 

The post Hashtag Trending Dec 20 – IRS releases private data; Big tech tops list for companies with low retention rates; South Australia powers with green energy first appeared on IT World Canada.

News that Avaya Holdings Corp. could imminently file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection means that both channel partners and corporate clients are watching anxiously to see what will happen next.

Should a filing end up happening, “part of Avaya’s Chapter 11 filing requires a simplification of their product lines,” Thomas Randall, advisory director with London, Ont.-based Info-Tech Research Group, said today. “Both channel partners and clients are watching for whether parts of Avaya will be sold off (e.g., their contact centre solution) to meet financial objectives, or whether certain products will just reach end of life from lack of R&D investment.”

News of the pending bankruptcy protection plan first broke on Thursday when the Wall Street Journal reported that the “company is reaching a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to restructure its balance sheet, in a bid to turn around its business and move past accounting problems.”

Company shares at the end of trading today plunged to US$0.15, from a high share price earlier this year of US$21.65.

According to Randall, “plenty will be attractive to potential buyers of Avaya product lines – Avaya still retains an extremely large customer base. The question will be whether Avaya just remains the paint on a solution powered by another provider, or if the Avaya brand will disappear altogether from a sell-off. RingCentral already powers Avaya’s UCaaS solution – will another vendor (like Microsoft) decide to acquire Avaya’s contact centre solution for ease to market?”

At the end of the day, he added, another concern to be considered is customer experience: “With so many layoffs and an inability to meet certain cloud deployment deadlines, Avaya customers and channel partners may be reaching the point of jumping ship.

“It is a difficult process to modernize from on-premises legacy communications to cloud-based solutions. But, if that move has taken place, the infrastructure now exists for clients to perform a cloud-to-cloud migration. Cloud-to-cloud migration services also present a market opportunity for channel partners to move into.”

Another stumbling block revolves around the fact that confidence among partners will not be high, Randall said: “Having already been through a Chapter 11 journey just five years ago, Avaya had to rally its partners at their 2018 Engage conference.

“Channel partners will now likely be asking, ‘What is different this time? What confidence can I be given that the product lines I am selling will still be here next year? What communication should I be giving my clients?’ At the moment, communication still remains vague and likely will remain so until the filing takes place.”

A Reuters article that followed the Wall Street Journal reporting  stated that the company “was in talks with its financial stakeholders regarding a comprehensive resolution to strengthen its balance sheet.”

In a statement issued on Dec. 13, Alan Masarek, Avaya’s chief executive officer (CEO), said discussions with all of the company’s financial stakeholders are taking place, “to enhance our capital structure, increase liquidity and accelerate our investment in innovative products and solutions.”

The post Sell-off of Avaya product lines a real possibility if Chapter 11 filing occurs, says analyst first appeared on IT World Canada.