27 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Alex Heath

Alex Heath

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    More From Alex Heath

    Bluesky is ready to open upBluesky is ready to open up
    Alex Heath
    Alex Heath
    Alex Heath
    A vibe check at Google.

    Here are just a couple of employee-submitted questions that CEO Sundar Pichai answered during the company’s all hands last week:

    “There seems to be a growing rift between leadership and employees. What is leadership’s perspective/awareness of this? Do you think there is a problem, is there anything being done to push us back to a relationship of mutual trust?”

    “Why has there been such an extraordinary effort to limit the internal visibility of layoffs announcements? I’ve learned more about layoffs in my own PA from The Verge than from my own employer.”

    ICYMI: There’s much from that meeting, including new tidbits about the company’s AI strategy, in the last issue of Command Line.

    Inside Google’s morale crisisInside Google’s morale crisis
    Alex Heath
    Alex Heath
    Alex Heath
    Meta’s business is booming, and so is Threads.

    The company’s stock price is way up after reporting monster Q4 earnings results of over $40 billion in revenue and $14 billion in profit. You can read all the numbers at the link below.

    Some other news CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared on the earnings call this afternoon: Threads is also booming. It has 130 million monthly active users and “more active people using it today than during its initial launch peak.”

    Alex Heath
    Alex Heath
    As I’m watching this hearing, it’s surprising to see which companies aren’t testifying.

    I find it particularly glaring that the committee didn’t subpoena the CEOs of Roblox and YouTube for a hearing about kids safety online, given that both of those services are wildly popular with young people and have dealt with their fair share of moderation failures.

    If I had to guess, Roblox probably has more pre-teen users than X and Discord combined, and YouTube even has a separate app for kids. Why aren’t either of those companies here?

    Alex Heath
    Alex Heath
    Zuckerberg says there is still “no plan” to release a kids version of Instagram.

    This was in response to Senator Amy Klobuchar reading a series of internal Meta employee discussions about building products for “tweens” and kids over the years.

    To my knowledge, Meta has never said anything publicly on this since shelving the project in 2021, so it’s noteworthy that Zuckerberg is now saying there is still no plan to release it. That’s not because folks inside Meta don’t want to have an Instagram for kids, as I’ve been told by sources, but because the company has (rightfully) come to the conclusion that doing so isn’t worth the backlash.

    Alex Heath
    Alex Heath
    “Lightweight and fine, like the fabric from a silk blouse.”

    That’s how John Gruber describes the Apple polishing cloth that comes packaged with the Vision Pro.

    I agree with his characterization of Apple’s other cloth you can buy separately being “quite suede-like” in texture. But I am waiting for further confirmation of this Very Important Cloth news from others who have used it. Perhaps Nilay can weigh in via the comments!

    The Vision Pro

    [Daring Fireball]