Hi Guys! It’s the end of another busy week in the world of tech. As usual, the week was packed with lots of news and surprises. From the landing of NASA’s rover on Mars to Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk alternating the world’s richest man spot, the global tech community was abuzz.
Here is a quick roundup of some of the major stories around the globe you might have missed.
Perseverance Lands on Mars
NASA’s Perseverance rover has successfully touched down on the surface of Mars. The rover’s clean landing sets the stage for a years-long journey to scour the Red Planet’s Jezero Crater for ancient signs of life.
Perseverance hit Mars’ atmosphere on time at 9:48PM at speeds of about 12,100 miles per hour. The blazing plunge through the Martian atmosphere lasted seven-minute.
The mission of the rover on Mars includes the launch of the first drone to fly on another planet, attempt making oxygen in space, and search for signs of ancient life.
Parler is back Online
Parler, the social network that was allegedly used to incite the Capitol violence is back online. The network had earlier gone offline after Amazon Web Services dropped it for posts advocating violence.
The company says the new site is built with “sustainable, independent technology and not reliant on big techs for its operations.”
However, all old posts and content have been removed for reasons that are currently unclear.
In addition to a new website, Parler also has a new chief executive Officer (CEO) Mark Meckler, founder of the Tea Party Patriots.
Facebook bans news-sharing in Australia
In response to Australia’s proposed law forcing internet platforms to pay news publishers directly, Facebook has cut off news sharing in the country.
According to the company, Australian users will not be able to share or view news links. Facebook Australia and New Zealand chief, William Easton explained that posting news on Facebook and Google search showing news results are two different things.
“Google Search is inextricably intertwined with news and publishers do not voluntarily provide their content. On the other hand, publishers willingly choose to post news on Facebook, as it allows them to sell more subscriptions, grow their audiences and increase advertising revenue.”
Facebook Australia and New Zealand, William Easton
Following the announcement of the ban Facebook’s shares slipped 1% on Thursday.
Google launches the first developer preview of Android 12
Google has released the first developer preview of Android 12. This comes almost exactly a year after Google announced the first developer preview of Android 11.
The preview adds more user-facing changes, UI updates and other new feature for developers that now makes individual changes on the platform togglable so they can more easily test the compatibility of their apps.
Also, it’ll add a Platform Stability milestone to Android 12 to give developers advanced notice when final app-facing changes will occur in the development cycle of the operating system. You can check out more of the updates in the link here.
Reddit and Robinhood testify to Congress on GameStop’s rally
This week, the CEOs of Reddit, Robinhood, Melvin Capital, and Citadel testified before congress following an unexpected rally of GameStop stock driven by individual investors.
A trading frenzy caused GameStop shares to surge 2,000% month-to-date on January 29
During the hearing, the lawmakers especially grilled Robinhood boss, Vlad Tenev, and Citadel’s billionaire owner, Ken Griffin over whether their businesses do more harm than good.
Reddit and Keith Gill, however, got the opposite treatment. Melvin Capital’s Gabe Plotkin also received some scrutiny, but far less than Robinhood. The decision of the hearing will be published at a later date.
You can check out other news that happened during the week here. Have a nice weekend!!
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