Technology

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/11393245

Edward Zitron has been reading all of google's internal emails that have been released as evidence in the DOJ's antitrust case against google.

This is the story of how Google Search died, and the people responsible for killing it.

The story begins on February 5th 2019, when Ben Gomes, Google’s head of search, had a problem. Jerry Dischler, then the VP and General Manager of Ads at Google, and Shiv Venkataraman, then the VP of Engineering, Search and Ads on Google properties, had called a “code yellow” for search revenue due to, and I quote, “steady weakness in the daily numbers” and a likeliness that it would end the quarter significantly behind.

HackerNews thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40133976

MetaFilter thread: https://www.metafilter.com/203456/The-core-query-softness-continues-without-mitigation

https://hci.social/@fasterandworse/112324957995918949

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/14827116

South Korean military set to ban iPhones over ‘security’ concerns

• https://www.mollywhite.net/micro/entry/202404231317
• Dan Luu's page with the image : https://danluu.com/slow-device/

In this niche case the Vision Pro seems like it has some compelling benefits.

Over the weekend, President Joe Biden signed legislation not only reauthorizing a major FISA spy program but expanding it in ways that could have major implications for privacy rights in the US. Archive: https://archive.ph/6v4mf

Li Auto, Tesla’s nearest rival in mainland China, reduced the price of all its vehicles by up to 5.7 per cent, just a day after the US carmaker offered discounts to local customers amid an escalating discount war.

The Beijing-based company announced on Monday morning that it would cut prices by between 18,000 yuan (US$2,485) and 30,000 yuan as a way of “focusing on customer value”. It said it is determined to keep improving its offerings for Chinese families such as its large vehicles fitted with household appliances.

On Monday, it cut the price of its Li Mega multipurpose minivan by 30,000 yuan, or 5.4 per cent, to 529,800 yuan. Launched in March this year, the fully-electric minivan described by its maker as being essentially a “mobile home” is designed to cater to the travel demands of wealthy families and is fitted with a refrigerator and a sofa. ⠀

“It is a fresh sign that the electric vehicle (EV) price war has spread to the premium segment now that Tesla and Li Auto, the two leaders, have joined the price competition,” said Eric Han, a senior manager at Suolei, an advisory firm in Shanghai. “Their pricing strategies are detrimental to small and unprofitable rivals whose profit margins will be squeezed further.” ⠀

On Sunday, Tesla lowered prices of its Shanghai-made Model 3 and Model Y vehicles by more than 5 per cent, a move that came hot on the heels of price cuts it made in the US, its biggest market, on Friday. ⠀

BYD, the world’s bestselling electric-car maker, fired the first salvo in a price war in February, slashing the prices of some budget models to lure young and low-income Chinese drivers.

Archive link

China's tech industry is thriving! They produced 3 billion chips daily, with a total output of 100 billion in Q1, up 40% YoY. March alone saw an impressive 28% jump to 36 billion units, driven by growth in NEVs and smartphones (17%). By 2027, China's global share of mature-process capacity is projected to rise from 31% to a staggering 39%.

https://www.scmp.com/tech/tech-war/article/3259221/chinas-semiconductor-output-jumps-40-first-quarter-amid-growing-dominance-legacy-chips

Why are so many people ok with a world where you have no say in what your employer does, and they can do whatever they want to suit their bottom line?

Though I wonder how much of this is actually corpophilia and how much is people hiding behind it because they don't want to say "I'm glad these people I disagree with got fired".

Here are some threads to show what I'm talking about:

r/technology

r/conservative (though this one feels like cheating)

r/news

r/bayarea

r/google

hacker news

washington post comments

etc..

https://mastodon.social/@carlosefr/112297897468390913

On Tuesday, Microsoft Research Asia unveiled VASA-1, an AI model that can create a synchronized animated video of a person talking or singing from a single photo and an existing audio track. In the future, it could power virtual avatars that render locally and don't require video feeds—or allow anyone with similar tools to take a photo of a person found online and make them appear to say whatever they want.