Good morning everybody, and happy Wednesday. Let’s just get stuck into it, shall we?
1. Fired Trump staffer’s game plan for Musk’s Twitter acquisition outlined many of his plans
An extensive report from NBCNews has shed light on Elon Musk’s strategy for buying and operating Twitter (now X), with a game plan published by a fired Trump staffer Darren Beattie before the acquisition, outlining what Musk would do when he’s in charge. An unknown sender (the identity of which was redacted in a court filing last year, while the content remained visible) texted Musk the original article outlining the plan, which you could argue he has loosely operated by, including the blaming of the Anti-Defamation League for the site’s problems, and the removal of preventions against racism, sexism, and transphobia. The original article called Musk’s purchase and operation of Twitter (X) a “Declaration of war against the Globalist American Empire,” which is probably one of the funniest ways that you could frame the whole situation.
2. Speaking of Twitter….
As reported by Yahoo Finance, ex-Twitter executives have won back $US1.1 million in legal fees from X (again, formerly Twitter). Executives involved in the lawsuit, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, were fighting for recompense for the legal expenses generated by their work for the company that they paid for, in line with the company’s own bylaws. Now, a judge has been convinced that the executives should get their money back, which is yet another big legal challenge and cost X now has to face.
3. Oh, great, another Netflix price hike
According to a Tuesday report from The Wall Street Journal, Netflix is giving it until the end of the ongoing actor’s strike before bumping up the price of its ad-free subscription. According to unnamed sources with knowledge of discussions, the price increases will start in the U.S. and Canada before moving globally. There’s no word on how much the costs will increase, but just based on Netflix’s past increases, it could be anywhere from $1 to $2 a month. The last time the company raised prices was in January of 2022. Great.
4. New Pixels
Tomorrow morning at 1:30am AEDT, Google is hosting its Made By Google event, an event we know will debut the new Google Pixel 8 and 8 Pro handsets – only because the company has made no actual attempts to pretend it wasn’t launching a new phone. Watch along with us on YouTube, or check back tomorrow as soon as you wake up for all the news from the event.
What does #TeamPixel have to say about the new #Pixel8Pro 👀 Find out more at the Google Store: https://t.co/pXT364vtSC pic.twitter.com/FZxujldtPZ
— googledownunder (@googledownunder) September 29, 2023
5. Zoom wants to be Google Docs now
Zoom is setting out to compete with Google and Microsoft by introducing Zoom Docs at its annual Zoomtopia 2023 event. Zoom Docs is the company’s own version of an AI-powered workspace that will provide users with AI capabilities to draft, edit, summarize, and include information from meeting discussions. The company said in a press release that its new feature will be integrated into the meetings feature, and says it will make it “easy for teams and individuals to create, collaborate, manage projects, and stay organised.” The Zoom Docs feature is scheduled to be generally available in the spring of 2024, although the company has not confirmed the exact release date or cost for the program.
BONUS ITEM: Just a bit of hump day cuteness featuring Steve Irwin for you.
The time Steve Irwin broke up a kookaburra fight pic.twitter.com/8KHaCMc3hK
— Historic Vids (@historyinmemes) September 30, 2023
Have a lovely day.
Image: Sundry Photography/iStock