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| Hey Insiders, Welcome to the Tech newsletter! Here are today's top stories: - Instagram's text-based social network, Threads, attracted 30M+ signups in just 16 hours.
- Samsung's "On the Flip Side" Unpacked event on July 26 will showcase its latest foldable phones.
- U.S. layoffs dropped by almost 50% in June, largely driven by a decline in job cuts within tech.
- TikTok is seeking a court order to block Montana's ban of the app.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Instagram's new text-based social network, Threads, has gained over 30 million signups within 16 hours of its launch, surpassing Temu as the top free app on the Apple App Store. Threads officially launched on Wednesday, gaining 2 million sign-ups within the first two hours and 10 million within seven hours of its release. More: - Developed by Meta, Threads aims to compete with Twitter. Users can post text-based messages called "threads" with a 500-character limit.
- The app features a scrolling feed where users can engage with threads by liking, replying, reposting, or quoting them.
- They can tag specific users using the @ symbol and control who can reply to their thread. The app supports photos and videos.
- Currently, Threads lacks features such as direct messaging, chronological feed, paid ads, hashtags, and a desktop website.
- It will soon incorporate ActivityPub, the open-source protocol fueling Mastodon and other decentralized services.
Zoom out: - While other Twitter alternatives have emerged, Threads benefits from its integration with Instagram, allowing allows users to log in with their Instagram accounts and leverage the app's infrastructure.
- However, deleting a Threads account would require deleting the associated Instagram account as well.
- Threads is now available on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store in over 100 countries, with plans for web accessibility. It won't launch immediately in the European Union due to regulatory uncertainty.
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| 2 | | The news: Samsung is hosting its next Unpacked event, dubbed "On the Flip Side," on July 26 in Seoul. The company will showcase its Galaxy Fold 5 and Galaxy Flip 5 foldable phones, along with the Galaxy Watch 6 and new tablets in the Samsung Tab S9 series. The phones will have a new hinge design, allowing them to fold without any gap. Preorder reservations are now available, offering a $50 credit. What brands should care: Samsung faces competition from Google's new Pixel Fold and Motorola's Razr Plus. However, a Counterpoint Research survey showed Samsung as the top choice for 46% of respondents when it comes to purchasing a foldable, followed by Apple at 39% and Motorola at 6%. Analysts predict that Apple will introduce its first foldable product in 2025 "at the earliest." What the numbers say: 28% of smartphone users said they are highly likely to choose a foldable smartphone as their next purchase. Global foldable smartphone shipments are forecasted to grow by 52% YoY in FY 2023, reaching 22.7 million units, according to Counterpoint Research's Q3 2022 report on the global foldable smartphone market 
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| 3 | | Layoffs in the U.S. decreased by nearly half in June compared to the previous month, primarily due to a decline in job cuts in the tech industry, as reported by Challenger, Gray & Christmas. The executive outplacement firm still noted that June's job cuts were higher compared to the same period last year. More: - The tech industry experienced 141,516 layoffs in the first half of this year, a substantial rise from about 6,000 during the same period last year, the firm reports.
- The sector laid off nearly 5,000 employees last month.
- June is typically the slowest month for job cut announcements, according to Andrew Challenger, the firm's senior vice president.
- He suggested that expected job losses due to inflation and interest rates may not happen, especially since the Federal Reserve last month kept interest rates steady.
Zoom out: | | | |
| 4 | | TikTok has sought a court order to block the enactment of a policy that will soon bar the Chinese-owned app in Montana. The ban, set to take effect in January, prohibits app stores from offering TikTok to residents, making it the first state to fully ban the app. More: - Less than a day after the law was signed, a group of five TikTok users filed a lawsuit, arguing that the ban infringed on their First Amendment rights and exceeded Montana's legal authority as a state.
- TikTok is funding that lawsuit, according to The New York Times.
- The company has now asked a U.S. District Judge for a preliminary injunction to block the ban, saying it infringes on federal law and the Constitution's Commerce Clause, which limits a state's authority to pass laws that unduly impact commerce.
- A TikTok executive argued that the ban would cause significant harm to the company's business and relationships with advertisers and partners.
Zoom out: - With over 150 million U.S. users, TikTok has faced calls for a nationwide ban due to concerns about potential foreign influence and safeguarding of user data.
- However, TikTok's parent company ByteDance, which is based in Beijing, insists it has not shared U.S. user data with the Chinese government and has taken measures to protect user privacy and security.
- TikTok estimates that 200,000 people in Montana use the app.
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| 5 | | Google has pushed back the release of its fully custom chip for Pixel smartphones by a year, until 2025, as reported by The Information. Google will continue to use Samsung's semicustom chips in the meantime. More: - The "Redondo" chipset was poised to be Google's first fully custom Tensor chip.
- However, a delay was attributed to challenges in coordinating work between U.S. and Indian teams and high turnover within the chip development division.
- Instead, it plans to introduce a new chip codenamed Laguna in 2025 that will be based on TSMC's 3-nanometer process, currently the most advanced in the world.
- Google will also switch from Samsung to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to produce the Tensor chips, its line of mobile chips that currently power Pixel phones from the Pixel 6 series and beyond.
- The Laguna chip may be introduced in the Pixel 10 series and could use TSMC's Integrated Fan-Out integrated circuit packaging technology.
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| 6 | | ChatGPT's growth has slowed down after a period of rapid expansion. In June, global website traffic for ChatGPT dropped by nearly 10%, marking its first decline since its launch in November, according to Similarweb data. More: - Worldwide desktop and mobile traffic to the ChatGPT website decreased by 9.7% compared to May.
- In the U.S., the decline in traffic was 10.3%.
- The number of unique visitors to the website also decreased by 5.7%, and the time spent on the site went down by 8.5% in May.
- Despite the decline, ChatGPT still attracts more visitors than Microsoft's Bing.com AI search engine and Character.AI, a competing AI chatbot site.
- It boasts over 1.5 billion monthly visits, ranking among the top 20 websites globally.
Possible reasons for the decline: - The recent launch of the ChatGPT app on iOS might have contributed to the decrease.
- The summer break for schools could be another factor, as fewer students are using ChatGPT for coursework help.
Source: Similarweb. | | | |
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Community Corner Last week, we asked our tech community, "What challenges have you faced while working remotely, and how did you overcome them?" Here are some highlighted responses we received: - Andrew Zell (p/andrewzell), Creative Projects at Zoom, answered: "I really enjoy working from home, which I think is distinctly different from working remotely. One challenge that I've personally faced is in housing, actually. Most apartments weren't/aren't built to house a work-from-home scenario, which means that there are limited ways to separate work and home inside your physical space. It can mean increased costs for your home due to wanting more space to separate these functions. Working from home means that you're likely saving on commute-related expenses, so there is a trade-off, but it's not necessarily an equivalent trade."
- Eric Katzman (p/ekatzman1), Senior Media Strategist at RLM PR, answered: "WFH was very difficult, after spending 20+ years going to the office. Everyone has their own opinion on commuting, but for me, I never thought a lot about it. It was part of the deal … When COVID hit, initially, WFH didn't have much of an effect. But, after a year, I got depressed and lonely, as a lot of people I knew, were going back. Heck, my wife even bought me a gym membership, which I am still using, so I would get out. I would go out with friends, once all were willing to, but, I still missed the day-to-day socialization, which some were non-verbal on the train."
Join the conversations at Inside.com, and we may shout out your name and business, or contact you for more! ⭐️ | | | |
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- Amazon's Devices & Services team is hosting an event, possibly to launch new tech products, at Amazon's HQ2 on Sept. 20.
- New York City is now enforcing its AI employment law, which requires companies using AI-infused hiring programs to prove that their technology is not biased against current or potential employees.
- Rovio will open the first Angry Birds-themed restaurant, "iSwii by Angry Birds," on Friday, July 8 in Flushing, Queens, New York.
- Luxury accessory maker Caviar plans to sell a customized Apple Vision Pro headset for $40,000. Caviar plans to produce only 24 units, with sales expected to start in the fall of 2024.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. She has written the Inside AI newsletter since 2019. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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