Apple will discontinue its iPod Touch, big tech companies face lawsuits for pulling services in Russia, and tech companies are laying off employees due to a post pandemic reset.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Wednesday, May 11, and I’m your host, Samira Balsara.
Apple will discontinue its iPod Touch, the last remaining model in its lineup of portable music players. The company said in a news post that it will sell the current Touch until supplies last. The iPod Touch was launched over two decades ago and became a staple in pop culture and music devices until more advanced technology emerged. While some may be sad to see the iconic device go, Tony Fadell, one of the developers of the original iPod, said that the iPod team knew the iPhone could end up overtaking music players, in an interview with The Verge. Apple added in its post that “the spirit of iPod lives on” in all of its devices that play music, like the iPhone, iPad, and HomePod Mini.
Big tech companies are facing lawsuits for pulling services from Russia. A Moscow Arbitration Court reportedly seized almost $11 million belonging to Dell after the company failed to provide paid-for services to a local system integrator. The Moscow-based company, Talmer, had reportedly paid Dell for these services beforehand, but since they never received the service, it was a breach of the service terms, BleepingComputer reported. Additionally, last month, Apple faced a similar issue after a Russian law firm filed a class action for breach of contract, seeking damages of 90 million roubles, approximately over one million dollars. Netflix was also hit with a class action lawsuit in April for similar reasons of breach of user terms, with the Russian law firm demanding a compensation of 60 million roubles, about $860,000.
Tech companies are laying off employees due to a post-pandemic reset, a TechCrunch article reveals. Over the past week, there has been an alarming amount of layoffs across the industry. Businesses like Cameo, On Deck, Robinhood, and Workrise have all let go employees. According to founders, the common reason for these layoffs is that there’s been a shift in the market, causing founders to make some changes. This week Robinhood laid off 9 per cent of its employees and the CEO of Cameo tweeted that he had to let go of 87 employees. In addition, On Deck, a tech company that connects founders, laid off 72 people this week, which is about 25 per cent of staff.
And now for something a bit different. Are you an Android user? If so, you might be a pretty good driver. In a new study by Jerry, Android users scored higher than iPhone users in every safe-driving category. The car insurance comparison service analyzed the driving habits of 20,000 U.S. drivers over the course of 13 million kilometres of driving. The company broke down the results into six categories: overall safe driving, distracted driving, speed, turning, accelerating, and braking. The results revealed that Android users took all six categories as the safest drivers. The category with the biggest difference between the two groups was distracted driving, with Android users scoring six points higher than iPhone users. While there’s no way to actually be entirely sure of this theory, Jerry’s researchers believe this may come down to rule-based versus emotional-based driving. Similar studies have shown that Android users are usually more conscientious and honest, with less inclination to break the rules. For comparison, a 2016 study at the universities of Lincoln and Lancaster, learned that iPhone users have been shown to display more emotionality, which can result in inconsistent and unpredictable behaviour.
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.