Good morning. Another week, and another bunch of tech news caused by one man and one man only.
1. A fun time at ElonMusk.com
It would be silly to not talk about the silliness that now is Twitter under Elon Musk’s “””””leadership”””””. Where to start with this one, wowee. Over the weekend, Musk decided to cap the number of posts an unverified account can read. This’ll be 600 for existing unverified accounts, 300 for new unverified accounts. But those paying Musk a monthly fee will be allowed to see 6,000 posts a day. But then he temporarily upped that. I don’t know, just keep scrolling until you get booted, I guess. Oh, and you gotta sign in to read tweets now.
Now to 10k, 1k & 0.5k
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 1, 2023
2. Twitter exodus pushes Bluesky
Things didn’t stop there, though. Ever since Musk bought Twitter back in October 2022, new social media platforms have been rising up, with hope from users that these new websites could kill the blue bird. The latest one is Bluesky, which, unlike the other platforms, does come with an extra little bit of weight behind it – it’s built by one of Twitter’s original co-founders, Jack Dorsey. Anyway, with everything Musk did over the weekend to make his site unusable, The Verge is reporting that Bluesky had to temporarily pause sign-ups, with the influx of new users having been a problem.
3. At least Tesla’s going OK
Elsewhere in Muskland, Tesla reported nearly doubling its deliveries year over year this last quarter. Per CNBC, we learned that total deliveries during Q2 2023 were 466,140, with total production during that period being 479,700. During the second quarter of last year, Tesla reported 254,695 deliveries. Down under, the price of the Tesla Model 3 and the Tesla Model Y are now the lowest they have ever been, with the Model 3 beating out its closest competitors, the Cupra Born and the Polestar 2
4. Telstra signs Starlink for satellite
And you thought we were done with Musk. Unfortunately not. This time, however, we move over to satellite comms. Telstra today announced it had signed an agreement to become the “first provider in the world” to offer voice-only and voice plus broadband powered by Starlink to rural and remote Telstra customers in Australia. Telstra said it will announce pricing and device details closer to launch, which it expects to be in late 2023.
5. Apple closes with $US3 trillion valuation
Lastly, something Musk doesn’t own, Apple. AP is reporting that Apple became the first publicly traded company to close a trading day with a $US3 trillion market value. Per the report: The 47-year-old company co-founded by Silicon Valley legend Steve Jobs had briefly eclipsed a $3 trillion market value on back-to-back days in January 2022, but couldn’t hold on by the time the market closed.
BONUS ITEM: When did this happen? Yikes…..
2023 is 50% complete. pic.twitter.com/dmqYnnxfHA
— Progress Bar 2023 (@ProgressBar202_) July 2, 2023
Have a wonderful (hopefully Musk-less) week, all.