Good morning, hope you had a nice start to April. Here are five things happening in the tech world to kick the month off.
1. Richard Branson’s rocket company shuts down
Following a failed rocket launch earlier this year, Richard Branson’s private space venture has been struggling to stay afloat. Virgin Orbit is laying off 85 per cent of its workforce, or 675 employees, and ceasing operations for the foreseeable future “in order to reduce expenses in light of the company’s inability to secure meaningful funding,” the company wrote in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Read more over here.
2. Twitter: Open source and a back-pedal on verification (again)
In an effort to boost transparency between the public and the social media platform, CEO Elon Musk has made Twitter’s recommendation algorithm open source…for some reason. There has also been a lot of back and forth on verification. Per a report from NBC, the day after Twitter was meant to begin removing verified check marks from accounts that would not pay for the platform’s new subscription service, many verified accounts still had their blue check….except for The New York Times. It’s been a weekend over at Musk.com.
Elon Musk quickly deleted a tweet saying legacy verified accounts would not lose their checkmarks on April 1 as he previously said, won’t happen for another “few weeks”
however, if they specifically say they won’t pay for Twitter Blue, then Twitter will remove their checkmark pic.twitter.com/HiiWwf30tb
— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) April 2, 2023
3. Tesla delivers nearly half a million EVs in a quarter
Staying on Musk for a minute and his auto project, Tesla, has set a new record for deliveries. Tesla announced on Sunday it delivered 422,875 EVs during the first three months of the year. It produced 440,808 vehicles during that same period, another record for the company.
Hi everybody. Tesla has just reported 422,875 deliveries in Q1 2023 which is a new record compared to 405K in Q4 2022. Congrats to the Tesla team.
My error rate was +1.2% for production and +1.0% for deliveries. I’m happy with that. pic.twitter.com/uGEyxztQVc
— Troy Teslike (@TroyTeslike) April 2, 2023
4. Pay for public transport with your Galaxy Watch
If you’ve got a Samsung Galaxy Watch, you’ll now be able to use it to pay for public transport in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide – provided you have Samsung Pay set up. The watch will work the same way as your usual travel card (using it to tap on and off) and the Samsung Pay app will instantly recognise your chosen transport card. Previously, Samsung smartwatch users would pay for public transport via several steps, including manually activating the Samsung Pay app on their Galaxy Watch and then unlocking the app for authentication purposes before tapping on.
5. Aussie women and cybersecurity
A new report by RMIT’s Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation (CCSRI) has highlighted the stark underrepresentation of women in the cybersecurity workforce. According to the report, there’s been a fourfold increase in the number of females in specialist ICT security roles from 2016 to 2021, compared to a threefold increase for males, so that’s something. You can read more here.
BONUS ITEM: The Australian Grand Prix has come and gone, but the nerdy stuff can still continue.
All the facts and stats from one of the most bonkers races in recent history! 🤯🤓#AusGP #F1 https://t.co/eXCqnbTVSI
— Formula 1 (@F1) April 2, 2023
See you tomorrow.