Monday, 15 August 2022

Partner(s)

Good morning!

Dennis here,

Steadily but surely, all those that have invested in Bitcoin might smile again. It seems that the work that crypto heads are doing to distinguish Bitcoin from the other cryptocurrencies as the industry takes a huge hit is working. For the first time in a very long time, Bitcoin topped $25,000.

Below are the tech stories and news you need to know to start your day, carefully curated by Technext.

Summary of the news

Apple held up Telegram’s latest update over emoji
Twitter has launched Location Spotlight, a feature to enable business owners connect directly with buyers
TikTok employees are not happy with a ‘kill list’ aimed at forcing out staff
Bitcoin has topped $25,000, the first time since June

Apple and Telegram’s fight again

Telegram released a new update on Friday, just one day after Telegram CEO and founder Pavel Durov said the update had been in Apple’s app review for two weeks without explanation. The update according to The Verge is packed with emoji-related features, but one is missing because Apple specifically requested its removal, according to Durov.

“After extensive media coverage of my previous post, Apple got back to us with a demand to water down our pending Telegram update by removing Telemoji — higher quality vector-animated versions of the standard emoji,” Durov wrote on his Telegram channel on Friday. “This is a puzzling move on Apple’s behalf, because Telemoji would have brought an entire new dimension to its static low-resolution emoji and would have significantly enriched their ecosystem.”

The update is loaded with other new emoji improvements, though. Users who subscribe to Telegram’s recently-launched $4.99 Premium service will be able to upload and use custom emoji in chats with friends, and Telegram is offering 10 custom packs with more than 500 emoji to start. Free users will be able to see any of the animated emoji and use them in their saved messages.

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Twitter launches Location Spotlight

Location Spotlight, a mobile widget that allows professionals with physical business locations to display their business information (such as an address, hours of operation and contact) so that customers can reach them directly or Twitter Direct Message has officially launched on Twitter, Technext reports.

In a press release, the platform announced that they have hit an important milestone in their journey to provide professionals with the needed assistance to project their business to thousands of followers with just a simple step.

See an excerpt from the statement from Twitter below:

Professionals – whether they are creators, nonprofits, developers, small business owners, or big brands – come to Twitter every day to drive results that can move their business forward. As we scale the Location Spotlight, we’re also giving it an extra boost that can help professionals drive their customers further down the path to purchase.

Using Google Maps Platform, this spotlight now gives professionals the option to add a map of their business location. Customers can then click on the map for directions to navigate there.

TikTok staff complain of ‘kill list’ aimed at forcing out staff

TikTok created what staff described as a “kill list” of colleagues that the company wanted to force out of its London office, in moves that some employees said created a working culture of fear at the fast-growing social media group, the Financial Times reports.

Several workers in the e-commerce department in London were named on the list, identified as people who the leaders of the viral video app, owned by China’s ByteDance, wanted to fire or end the contracts of, according to four people at the company with knowledge of the procedures.

One person with direct knowledge of the company’s human resources processes described it as a “manage off” list that had at least a dozen names on it. In some cases, replacements were hired while people on the list were still in their role. Some of those targeted had only been in the positions for a couple of weeks, they added.

Others said they felt that leaders had created a hostile work environment to encourage named staff to resign, leading some employees to refer to it as a “kill list”.

Bitcoin rise again

Bitcoin briefly surpassed $25,000 for the first time since mid-June, as momentum continued from a cooler-than-expected US inflation data and progress toward Ethereum’s big upgrade.

Bloomberg reports that the largest cryptocurrency rose as much as 2.2% on Sunday to $25,031, its highest level since June 13. It was trading around $24,750 as of 6 a.m. New York time, rising a fifth straight day in a streak fueled by US consumer-price index data that came in below expectations.

Ether gained as much as 2% to $2,030.50, having surpassed $2,000 on Saturday for the first time since May 31 amid optimism about completion of its blockchain’s much-anticipated software upgrade known as the Merge.

“The next CPI print will be released a mere two days before the Merge, at which point we expect a lot of pre-event momentum to be baked into the market,” said Fundstrat digital-asset strategist Sean Farrell, in a note Friday. “Long and medium-term investors should look to use any dips as buying opportunities.”

Latest in funding

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