Technology
Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook 2 is on sale for $499 at Amazon and Best Buy
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The midrange Chromebook 2 certainly isn’t the most powerful Chromebook you can get — blame it on the 10th Gen Intel Core i3-10110U processor — but it should suffice for everyday work use and multitasking, especially with the machine’s 8GB of RAM. Moreover, it touts decent battery life (when compared to the original 2020 model) and a gorgeous QLED panel that makes use of Samsung’s quantum-dot technology, resulting in better contrast and more accurate colors regardless of what you’re watching. Read our review.
The hybrid vacuum / mopping robot doesn’t boast AI obstacle avoidance like our top robovac pick, the Roomba j7, but it’s efficient at cleaning both hardwood floors and carpets. It also offers support for all the major voice assistants — specifically Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri — and comes with a handy “VibraRise’’ feature that lifts the mop up when it senses carpet, preventing you from dousing your carpet and making a mess when you’re trying to do the exact opposite. Read our Roborock S7 Plus review.
Apple’s second-gen HomePod has arrived, and while we’re not likely to see discounts on the new model any time soon, there’s much to be said about its stylish counterpart, the HomePod Mini. The compact, Siri-equipped smart speaker — which is currently seeing a rare $15 discount at Verizon — comes in an assortment of colors, from a bright yellow to vibrant orange that can add a splash of color to any room.
The Mini is not going to dish out the kind of sound associated with the bigger, more expensive model, but it offers all the same smart home features, allowing it to serve as a hub for both HomeKit and Matter-compatible accessories. It also sounds surprisingly good for its size, so if its new temperature and humidity sensing tricks don’t get you excited, you can at least rest assured that you’re getting a well-balanced speaker that’s just as suited for podcasts as Britpop. Read our review.
Technology
GitHub takes down repository containing Twitter’s source code

Microsoft-owned GitHub took down a repository by a user named “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” that contained proprietary source code to Twitter after the social network filed a DCMA takedown request. The username certainly seems to be a jab at Twitter owner Elon Musk, who has claimed to be a “free speech absolutist” many times.
On Friday, Twitter filed a petition in the District Court of Northern California asking GitHub to take down the code and also help it find the perpetrator. The subpoena asks GitHub to disclose name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), email address(es), social media profile data, and IP address(es) linked with “FreeSpeechEnthusiast”.
The development comes days before March 31, when Musk will supposedly make Twitter’s algorithm related to the recommendation open source.
It’s not clear what part of Twitter was leaked on GitHub and for what duration. GitHub’s DCMA takedown blog just mentioned it took down the repository containing “Proprietary source code for Twitter’s platform and internal tools.”
The code-hosting site didn’t say if any users were able to access the repository before the company took it down. We have asked for a comment and will update the story if we hear back.
Twitter might be concerned about copies of the code that might not be present on GitHub. Twitter’s internal investigation suggested that the people who were responsible for the leak left the company last year, as per a report from the New York Times. The story also suggested that the social network’s executives got to know about the code leak only recently.
The company is facing a tough time after Musk’s takeover last year. Recent reports suggest that the Tesla CEO now values Twitter at $20 billion — less than half of the $44 billion he paid for the social network. According to a report from the New York Times, Musk also wrote an email to employees to announce a new stock compensation program that said Twitter could be worth $250 billion one day.
To get Twitter’s finances in better shape, Musk has taken radical steps for cost-cutting including mass layoffs and relaunching a new subscription program that offers verification as one of the benefits. According to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower, Twitter has managed to just get $11 million out of this new service. For comparison, Twitter registered $1.17 billion in revenue for Q2 2022.
At a recent conference, Musk said that time on users’ Twitter is poorly monetized.
“The average amount of time that people spend on Twitter per day that 250 million [monthly active users] is around half an hour or so. So what we have is — the thing that’s I think most interesting — is there are about 120 to 130 million hours of human attention per day on Twitter,” he said
“Every single day on, average, which is — I think it comes to a really interesting point which is to — just it’s startling how poorly monetized that is — because you have to say like how valuable is that attention 100 to 130 million hours of human attention per day of people that read — so these are the generally the smartest people in the world, the most influential people in the world.”
As expected, when we reached out to Twitter, we got a poop emoji.
Technology
Activist investor Elliott ditches director nomination plans for Salesforce

Activist investor Elliott Investment Management won’t be proceeding with plans to nominate its own directors to Salesforce’s board, citing improved performance and a clearer “focus on value creation” from the enterprise software company.
Elliott — one of five activist investors within Salesforce’s ranks — announced ahead of Salesforce’s recent Q4 earnings that it was pushing several of its own candidates toward the Salesforce board after a turbulent 2022 for the company. However, after a return to financial form for Salesforce, beating growth forecasts and announcing more shareholder returns, it seems this has been enough to convince Elliott that Salesforce has corrected course.
In a joint statement today, the companies said that in light of Salesforce’s recently announced “profitable growth framework” dubbed “New Day,” alongside its strong fiscal year 2023 and a slew of additional “transformation initiatives,” Elliott won’t pursue its director nominations.
“I have great respect for Marc [Salesforce co-founder and CEO Marc Benioff] and his team, and I have become deeply impressed by their strong ongoing commitment to profitable growth, responsible capital return and an ambitious shareholder value creation plan,” Elliott managing partner Jesse Cohn noted in a press release.
Technology
First Citizens to acquire Silicon Valley Bank

First Citizens BankShares has agreed to buy Silicon Valley Bank, the California lender that served as lifeblood of thousands of startups and whose collapse sent shockwaves through the financial sector, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said on Monday.
The deal includes the purchase of about $72 billion assets of Silicon Valley Bank at a discount of $16.5 billion. About $90 billion in securities and other assets of the California-based lenders will remain “in receivership of disposition” by the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
The announcement comes weeks after the FDIC seized control of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 after a run on deposits made the lender insolvent. The 17 former branches of Silicon Valley Bank will open as First Citizens Bank on Monday, the FDIC said.
“In addition, the FDIC received equity appreciation rights in First Citizens BancShares, Inc., Raleigh, North Carolina, common stock with a potential value of up to $500 million,” the FDIC said in a statement.
Before the collapse, the Silicon Valley Bank was the 16th largest bank in the U.S. Its meltdown was the largest bank failure in the U.S. since the 2008 financial crisis.
More to follow.
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