Internet Explorer officially retires this week, Coinbase faces petition to remove CEOs, and Tesla Autopilot investigation escalates.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Tuesday, June 14, and I’m your host, Samira Balsara.
Internet Explorer’s days are numbered–just two, in fact. The venerable browser will officially retire on June 15, succeeded by the newer, faster Edge browser. Internet Explorer was first released in 1995, some 27 years ago, and peaked in 2003 with a whopping 95 per cent of the browser market. In the years that followed, it faced stiff competition from companies like Google and Mozilla, and eventually lost its dominance to Google Chrome. Still, it will be fondly remembered by its loyal fans it garnered during its 27 year run.
As a part of strategy to cut costs, Coinbase has passed its hiring and rescinded some accepted offers, leading to outrage both in and outside of the company. Applicants who were looking forward to their new job are now left without income, as many have already quit their previous roles. It’s not only job seekers who were unhappy; the company’s employees have filed a petition to remove the top executives. In response, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong took to Twitter to address the issue. In a series of Tweets, the CEO stood his ground and asked those who complained to work elsewhere if they’re unhappy. While he agreed that leaders should listen to suggestions, he also championed a “praise in public, criticize in private” culture.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is launching a safety probe into Tesla cars. First launched last year, the investigation now encompasses 830,000 Teslas and 200 new cases of collisions. The agency is now saying that it’s treating the investigation as an engineering analysis, and will analyze whether Tesla’s Autopilot function exacerbates human errors. According to Business Insider, elevating it to an engineering analysis isn’t good news for Tesla, as it could potentially result in a recall if problems are determined.
One laptop company wants to do-away with colourful displays and introduce an e-ink display. The company called Modos says it wants to bring longer battery life and reduce eye strain with its new display. Most impressively, the display is capable of refreshing at 60 hertz, matching the performance of most of today’s laptop displays. In a side by side comparison video, the developers demonstrated its silky smooth scrolling when browsing the web. The laptop and its e-ink display are still under development, but the company wants to get into the hands of consumers as soon as possible.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Samira Balsara.