Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Richard LawlerMay 5, 2023

Not all of the Twitter Blue subscribers are sticking around.

Citing data scraped by independent researcher Travis Brown (you can have a look at his setup on Github), Mashable reports, “Out of about 150,000 early subscribers to Twitter Blue, just around 68,157 have stuck around and maintained a paid subscription as of April 30.”

Brown says his process gets data for about 90 percent of Blue subscribers. We’ll see if Elon ever releases any official numbers regarding the subscription to confirm or refute what’s accessible and estimated via scraping.

Richard LawlerMay 5, 2023

It’s Bandcamp Friday.

It’s that special time when Bandcamp takes a brief holiday from its usual commission, continuing a pandemic tradition that is now stretching into 2023.

Bandcamp:

On the first Friday of the month since March of 2020, we’ve waived our revenue share to help support artists on Bandcamp. Over the course of just those 27 days, fans have paid artists and labels more than $95 million USD. If you’re among the nearly 1.5 million fans who have participated, thank you.

Richard LawlerMay 5, 2023

The Brydge is over.

Brydge launched in 2012 with a mission of turning your iPad into a MacBook Air, but roughly a decade clear of its initial Kickstarter, the company has ceased operations.

9to5Mac has a report detailing Brydge’s internal culture, recent waves of layoffs, unpaid employees, and failed attempts at acquisition by peripheral competitors like Razer or Targus.

The addition of iOS trackpad support in 2020 — which was fully compatible with Apple’s Magic Keyboard but not Brydge — was another big problem. Apple Insider spoke to co-CEO Nicholas Smith, who said he believes “the new owners intend on fulfilling the outstanding orders.”

The downfall of Brydge: iPad keyboard company folds, leaving staff unpaid and customer orders unfulfilled

[9to5Mac]

Richard LawlerMay 4, 2023

Google is apparently going to be more secretive about its AI breakthroughs.

A paper (PDF) published by Google described the Transformer neural net architecture that is the “T” in OpenAI’s GPT, but the Washington Post reports we shouldn’t expect to see that happen again.

Now the Post says Google Research leader Jeff Dean shifted away from a previous approach of “encouraging researchers to publish academic papers prolifically.”

Instead:

Google would take advantage of its own AI discoveries, sharing papers only after the lab work had been turned into products, Dean said, according to two people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private information.

Google shared AI knowledge with the world — until ChatGPT caught up

[Washington Post]

Richard LawlerMay 4, 2023

Four Proud Boys members, including leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, were found guilty of seditious conspiracy.

CNN reports a jury convicted four members of the far-right group for their involvement in the mob that stormed the US Capitol building on January 6th, 2021.

The jury continues to deliberate on a few other charges, including assault against specific officers and destruction of government property.

Google announces the Pixel Fold

Richard LawlerMay 4, 2023

Richard LawlerMay 3, 2023

Spoiler alert.

While ever-so-optimistically noting this is a preview of the Earth’s fate (in another 5 billion years or so), scientists at MIT, Harvard, and Caltech say that for the first time, they were able to see a star expand and engulf a nearby planet.

This horror show was captured within our own galaxy and included the use of NASA’s asteroid-hunting Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE) to capture infrared light indicating dust released from the disintegrating planet.

Richard LawlerMay 3, 2023

If nothing else works, try threats.

Just as Twitter extended an olive branch to the MTA with free API access, Elon Musk emailed an NPR reporter threatening to reassign the outlet’s account.

The NPR stopped posting last month after Twitter tried adding account labels indicating it was controlled by the government.

Twitter’s own rules indicate an account is active as long as someone’s logging in, not whether they’re posting. But, those rules also used to use NPR as an example of an account that didn’t fit the criteria of a “state-owned” media organization. Things change.