Let's Spill The Tea: Top Consumer Tech News From Last Week That You Should Know (April 28-May 4, 2024)

Lekha Gupta

May 05, 2024

Here’s what happened in the world of consumer tech in the last week:

Earnings

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) reported first-quarter FY24 net sales of $143.3 billion, up 13% year-over-year. The net sales total beat a Street consensus estimate of $142.5 billion.

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Games

Microsoft Corp‘s (NASDAQ:MSFT) latest ID@Xbox digital showcase unveiled a treasure trove of indie gems destined to captivate gamers on both Xbox and PC platforms.

Microsoft Bethesda clarified Monday details about the free next-gen update for “Fallout 4.” There was confusion among Sony (NYSE:SONY) PlayStation 5 owners. Also, Bethesda said “Fallout 76” has seen a significant increase in player numbers, reaching over a million players in a single day.

Sony‘s PlayStation Plus expanded its lineup on May 7 with “EA Sports FC 24,” “Ghostrunner 2,” “Tunic,” and “Destiny 2: Lightfall.” Members will also get an Ultimate Team Starter Pack for the “EA Sports FC 24” game.

Ubisoft Technologies SA (OTC:UBSFF) revealed the release date for “Assassin’s Creed Mirage” on iOS and iPadOS is June 6.

A leaked Facebook post from Mobapad revealed that Nintendo‘s (OTC:NTDOF) successor to the Switch, the Switch 2 , features a larger 1080p screen and magnetically attachable controllers.

South Korea’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism aims to bolster the console gaming sector by 2028, aiming to diversify its gaming industry away from relying heavily on mobile and online platforms.

Elon Musk

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO and X owner Elon Musk reacted to a post that suggested using Microsoft’s LinkedIn for more than five minutes can turn a user into a zombie.

Read: Elon Musk Takes A Dig At Sundar Pichai After Google’s Alleged Censorship On Hunter Biden: Asked If He Trusts Big Tech, Says ‘Definitely Not’

X is testing a major design overhaul in recent history, offering a new way to like and repost.

Musk has acknowledged the remarkable achievement of pop sensation Taylor Swift on his social media platform.

Read: Goldman Sachs Tempers Investor Excitement On Tesla Self-Driving Tech In China: ‘Not Yet An Eyes-Off, Unsupervised Product’

Tech

In response to mounting criticism over its handling of cyberattacks, Microsoft announced the appointment of new security chiefs to its product groups.

Alphabet Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:GOOG) Google Play Store has introduced a feature that allows users to download and install two Android apps simultaneously.

Read: China Stock Ideas For Tech Resurgence: Tesla, Apple Make Strategic Moves; Goldman Sachs Projects 40% Upside Potential

In a Capitol Hill forum, Palantir Technologies Inc. (NYSE:PLTR) CEO Alex Karp made some controversial remarks, including joking about drone-striking his business rivals and suggesting that protesters be sent to North Korea.

Also Read: Palantir CEO Says American Tech Industry’ Maximally Tolerant’ Of Any Personality: ‘I’m Like A Hyper Inexplicably Dyslexic Outsider’

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has suggested that a ban on TikTok in the EU is a possibility. “It is not excluded,” von der Leyen said, before adding that the commission was “the very first institution worldwide to ban TikTok on our corporate phones.”

Social Media

In a recent development, a poll disclosed that a majority of Americans view TikTok as a tool for Chinese influence on U.S. public opinion, a Reuters/Ipsos poll reveals. Around 58% of the participants agreed with the notion that the Chinese government uses TikTok to “influence American public opinion,”

Amazon.com‘s Twitch has introduced a short-form video platform, directly competing with TikTok, amidst the latter’s uncertain future in the U.S.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey appears to disagree with Vice President Kamala Harris’ statement on women’s trust, but could he have misinterpreted her meaning?

Related: Is Edward Snowden Free? Twitter Co-Founder Jack Dorsey’s Cryptic Posts Spark Speculations About NSA Whistleblower

Meta

Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) faced a significant setback as its AI-powered ad tools are malfunctioning, leading to a waste of ad budgets and a decline in sales. This has prompted businesses to reconsider their advertising strategies on Meta’s platforms.

The company’s Chief AI scientist Yann LeCun revealed the reason behind his CEO Mark Zuckerberg not being a part of the Biden administration’s new AI Safety Institute. This team does not include Tesla Inc. CEO and xAI founder Elon Musk either.

Elon Musk has once again accused Meta of taking credit for traffic that actually originates from his social media platform, X. Also, Musk targeted former Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.

Smartphones

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone sales plummeted 16% in the first three months of 2024, starting the year on a bad note for the Tim Cook-led company. iPhone shipments fell by a staggering 9.3 million units, from 58 million in Q1 2023 to 48.7 million in Q1 2024.

Apple has acknowledged a recurring issue with iPhone alarms failing to sound, following complaints from users on social media platforms like Twitter and TikTok.

Frequent leaker Sonny Dickson on Sunday shared a photo revealing the screen sizes for the upcoming Apple’s iPhone 16 lineup, along with details about the camera bump.

Also Read: How Apple’s Arch Rivals Meta And Google Are Revamping Their Plans To Take On The Might Of iPhone And Vision Pro

Apple’s iPad operating system, iPadOS, has been labeled as a gatekeeper by the European Union’s antitrust regulators, according to the European Commission’s recent announcement.

Apple has ramped up AI efforts, poaching over 36 experts from Google for its new Zurich lab. The company plans to unveil new AI features at WWDC, aiming to transform iPhone into a voice-activated assistant.

The Ukraine Air Force is using Apple’s iPads to operate modern weapons in older fighter jets in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. This unconventional method allows older jets to use modern weapons using iPads to transmit targeting information.

Also Read: Apple Co-Founder Steve Wozniak Reveals His Unique Obsession With This Weird Object: ‘Many Of The Best Thingsâ€¦ Aren’t Super Functional But They Are Cool’

CEO Tim Cook has described China as “the most competitive market in the world” following the company’s underwhelming quarterly results, which were attributed to a drop in demand in China and fierce competition from Huawei Technologies.

Renowned YouTube tech reviewer Marques Brownlee, popularly known as MKBHD, has posted a review of a new AI device, the Rabbit R1, which he describes as “barely reviewable.” This comes after his controversial review of the Humane AI Pin, the brainchild of former Apple managers.

Also Read: Jensen Huang’s Initial Nvidia Pitch Dubbed’ One Of The Worst’ By Former Boss, Yet Backed By Belief In ‘Godfather Of GPU’

Sam Altman-led OpenAI has made its “Memory” feature available to all ChatGPT Plus subscribers, enabling the AI model to remember previous conversations and user-supplied insights.

Altman has also expressed his affection for the GPT-2 language model, despite his previous criticism of all the models before GPT-5, which has yet to launch.

Altman has expressed a resolute commitment to the development of artificial general intelligence, regardless of the financial cost.

Read: Your 30-Second Elevator Pitch Skills Mirror AI Power? OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Seems To Agree ‘This Is Basically How LLMs Work’

Google has urged the U.S. government to update its immigration policies to attract more AI and tech talent from abroad.

Read: Apple And Tesla’ Only Two Companies Able To Thread The Needle In Terms Of China-US’, Says Top Analyst After Tim Cook And Elon Musk’s Recent China Visits

Venture capitalist and Y Combinator cofounder Paul Graham expressed skepticism over the U.K. government’s unclear plans for AI regulation, sparking a discussion on the challenges of AI governance.

Also Read: Elon Musk Reacts As MIT Engineer Says We’re At ‘Fraction Of 1% In AI Investment. Imagine What’s About To Come In Next Decade:’ ‘Exciting, But Also Worrying’

Amazon announced that its generative AI business has reached a “multibillion-dollar” revenue run rate, during the post-Q1 earnings call on Tuesday.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy highlighted the potential of the company’s AI chatbot, “Q,” to revolutionize software development during the first-quarter 2024 earnings call. Also, Jassy highlighted the potential for AWS, stating that despite the segment’s $100 billion-plus annualized revenue run rate, over 85% of the global IT spend is still on-premises. “We remain very bullish on AWS,” he said.

Also Read: Sam Altman’s OpenAI And Amazon-Backed Anthropic Face Serious Competition From These Chinese Startups Backed By Alibaba, Xiaomi And More

Apple CEO Tim Cook teased “exciting things” in the AI space during the company’s second-quarter 2024 earnings call. However, he refrained from divulging any specifics about the upcoming AI products.

Photo: Shutterstock

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