Good morning. It’s Tuesday and we’ve got five things to catch you up on in the world of tech today.
1. More tech industry layoffs, this time from Spotify
Spotify informed its employees this morning that it will be cutting jobs this week, making it the latest in a wave of mass layoffs following hiring surges during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. CEO and Spotify co-founder, Daniel Ek, announced the change in a memo to staff, saying the company was forced to cut costs due to necessary “organizational changes,” adding the decision is “in an effort to drive more efficiency, control costs, and speed up decision-making.”
2. Spiral over Hawaii likely caused by SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
Last week, astronomers at a Hawaiian observatory spotted a spiral-like structure over Maunakea. A SpaceX Falcon 9 upper stage is the likely source of the strange atmospheric feature, as this sort of thing has happened before. The spiral was seen during the early morning hours of January 18, the same day that a Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. A tweet from Subaru Telescope astronomers provided a glimpse of the spectacle, which the scientists linked to SpaceX’s launch of a new satellite.
3. End-to-end encryption is finally coming to Messenger
Meta announced this morning that Messenger users may soon be notified that their service is being upgraded to facilitate end-to-end encryption for all messages. CEO Mark Zuckerberg first made a short post about it on his Facebook page, also mentioning there will be link previews, custom emojis, and new themes added in the near future. In its blog post, the company said end-to-end encryption will roll out over the next few months, whereby users will suddenly find more of their chats becoming updated with encryption. Individual chat threads will be notified they’re receiving this change. Meta said this was a “random process” designed so there weren’t any problems happening on their own app infrastructure.
4. Microsoft and OpenAI announce multi-billion dollar partnership
OpenAI has announced that it has received a “multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment” from Microsoft, continuing previous investments from 2019 and 2021. “In pursuit of our mission to ensure advanced AI benefits all of humanity, OpenAI remains a capped-profit company and is governed by the OpenAI non-profit,” the company wrote in a blog post. The continued partnership will see the two companies continue the development of supercomputing systems and integrate AI into more Microsoft products, as reported by Ars Technica.
We are happy to announce the next phase of our partnership with Microsoft: https://t.co/mqx3ZJNGfL
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) January 23, 2023
5. iOS 16.3 for iPhones supports physical security keys
iOS 16.3, the latest update for Apple’s iPhone range, brings with it support for physical security keys, as reported by Engadget. This update sees iPhones become capable of using physical security keys, such as the Yubikey, as an extra layer of security for your phone.
BONUS ITEM: Sometimes cars can have a little too much.
Misfiring the unlock button at after school pickup and pepper spraying my kids from the side mirrors as they’re zapped by the electrified door handles I left armed pic.twitter.com/gawaYO6HcQ
— Eoin Higgins (@EoinHiggins_) January 23, 2023
Have a nice day.