Good morning, hope you’re feeling rested. We’ve got some tech news to share with you today.
1. Tinder to charge $500 a month for VIP status
Tinder reckons people will pay $500 a month t0 find a match. Brought to our attention by Insider, Tinder’s new VIP service is only on offer to about 1 per cent of the dating app’s most active users. One of the features available is ‘Direct Message’, which lets you send someone a message without having matched them up to twice a week. That feature sucks. Please don’t make this app less of a safe space than it already is.
2. A Gen Z chatbot for Meta
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Facebook owner Meta is preparing to announce a generative AI chatbot called ‘Gen AI Personas’. With that article behind a paywall, The Verge explains that this new bot is internally aimed at younger users and is set to launch during the company’s Meta Connect event that starts Wednesday (U.S. time). It’s giving absolute Hello fellow kids vibes but the chatbot would reportedly come in multiple “personas” geared towards engaging young users.
3. A trash can on wheels
New Yorkers are getting a new friend – the NYPD is implementing a new security measure at the Times Square subway station: A security robot whose job it is to patrol the area and “keep people safe”. Per the New York Times, and brought to our attention by Engadget, the robot, made by California-based company Knightscope, looks like a massive version of R2-D2. Its makers reckon it’s like a “trash can on wheels”.
4. Intel slapped with €376.4 million fine
Intel has been slapped with a €376.4 million fine by the European Union after a long-running legal fight that the AP said Intel actually won last year. Regardless, the European Commission imposed the fine after a court threw out an original €1.06 billion penalty issued in 2009 over allegations that the company used illegal sales tactics to shut out smaller rival AMD. The antitrust watchdog accused Intel of abusing its dominant position in the global market for x86 microprocessors with a strategy to exclude rivals by using rebates and sales restrictions. Read more here.
5. Cisco buys Splunk
Ending things today with the business behind tech and Cisco, the company you probably don’t even know you’re using products from, over the weekend entered into an agreement to purchase Splunk, in a deal that’s worth around $US28 billion. Splunk describes itself as “is “the key to enterprise resilience”, which essentially means it has a bunch of software tools to monitor a business’ network and prevent mishaps. Cisco is a networking giant, the purchase makes complete sense, but $US28 billion is unfathomable.
BONUS ITEM: The future, folks.
See ya tomorrow!
Image: file photo