TechSpot's top big tech stories of 2022: Why is Amazon building CPUs?

[Shawn Knight]

Big tech continued to influence the overall tech landscape in 2022. As consumers became more cognizant of personal privacy, so too did the the US government. We also couldn't help but notice that more big tech players are bringing hardware development in-house to reap the many benefits that such an arrangement affords.

Zuckerberg to Meta staff "there are probably a bunch of people at the company that shouldn't be here"

An ominous warning, Zuck says new policies will focus on "ruthless prioritization" and "modified performance standards"

It's been a tough year for Meta. The tech giant has faced plummeting stocks, hiring freezes, large-scale turnover, and a failed venture into the cryptocurrency space. In a recent Q&A with employees, CEO Mark Zuckerberg discussed changes in the company's focus, management style, and employee expectations. Unfortunately for Meta employees, the expectation communicated is that many of them may no longer be needed or welcome.

Inside the Apple M1 is an incredibly quirky GPU

It's sort of a cross between desktop and mobile hardware

Apple keeps the inner workings of the M1 family of processors secret from the public, but dedicated developers have been reverse-engineering it to create open source drivers and a Linux distro, Asahi Linux, for M1 Macs. In the process, they've discovered some cool features.

Why is Amazon building CPUs?

AWS is pushing customers to run workloads on Graviton CPUs more and more

When it comes to companies rolling their own custom chips, our core thesis is that doing this to save a few dollars on chips is breakeven at best. Instead, companies want to build their own chips when it conveys some form of strategic advantage.

Number of teens using Facebook crashes as YouTube becomes platform of choice

"It's the children who are wrong," says old man Facebook

Are you old enough to remember when Facebook usurped Myspace as the cool social media platform everyone should be using? If the answer is yes, you're probably still on Zuckerberg's product, unlike almost 70% of teens, who prefer the likes of YouTube, TikTok, and Snapchat.

Amazon refused to refund a customer who received putty-filled fake graphics card

Amazon demanded the "real" item be returned

Not for the first time, a large retailer refused to refund a customer after sending them a useless object instead of the PC component they purchased. On this occasion, Amazon sent a Canada-based buyer an RTX 3060 Ti that turned out to be a fake card stuffed with a putty-like substance. The company said it wouldn't hand over a refund until the "correct" item had been returned to its warehouse.

Someone wrote a Javascript app that accurately emulates Windows 95 on almost any platform

And yes. It can run Doom, but not Crysis

Are you yearning for the days when operating systems were simpler and less bloated? If you have fond memories of the early days of Microsoft Windows and want a quick nostalgia fix, instead of pulling that 1995 laptop out of the attic, just download Windows 95.exe.

Apple's AirTag is quickly becoming the perfect tool for stalking Android users

Addressing the problem will require Apple to work more closely with Google

Apple isn't the first company to develop a tracking fob. However, the extensive Find My network has made AirTags a very effective tool for criminals. It is a problem the company will have to solve for both iOS users and the three billion Android users who don't have a phone that can automatically detect rogue AirTags.

FCC commissioner calls on Google and Apple to ban TikTok from their app stores

"TikTok is not just another video app. That's the sheep's clothing"

Brendan Carr, a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission, has called on Apple and Google to remove TikTok from their respective app stores following new reports that users' data is being accessed by the Chinese-based employees of its parent company ByteDance.

Microsoft data centers around the world are experiencing capacity and resource shortages

The shortage is fueled by ongoing hardware availability issues, increased demand, and Azure's aging infrastructure

Customers are often sold cloud services under the guise of "limitless resources" that can be scaled to meet current demands, similar to other utilities. Azure, like other cloud providers, has experienced a huge surge in resource demands to meet the needs of companies and remote employees for the last several years. Unfortunately for Microsoft, some customers are starting to feel the effects of that surge and learning that capacity may have been an issue all along.

Amazon tells employees that a software error miscalculated their compensation

Cancel that yacht order

Imagine being promoted and finding out that you're going to receive considerable compensation, only for the company to inform you that, due to a software error, the new package isn't as generous as expected. It's a situation faced by around 40% of Amazon corporate employees who were promoted in the current quarter.

New Google AI technology can create short videos based on a single image

The new AI framework uses context images to generate up to 30 seconds of video

Researchers continue to find new ways to leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities as the technologies evolve. Earlier this week, Google scientists announced the creation of Transframer, a new framework with the ability to generate short videos based on singular image inputs. The new technology could someday augment traditional rendering solutions, allowing developers to create virtual environments based on machine learning capabilities.

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[psycros]

I've said it before, but literally everyone with a modicum of common sense knew what tracking fobs would primarily be used for. Just like with drones, you cannot put that kind of technology into the hands of the general public and expect them to do anything but abuse it.

 

[RudyBob]

" Unfortunately for Meta employees, the expectation communicated is that many of them may no longer be needed or welcome."

I may not appreciate Meta but I feel for folk that worry about job security whether it be guys that dig coal or tight pants at the tech companies. For you tight pants guys. You are not perceived as working hard. Change that perception

 

[Julnor]

Facebook would have died a decade ago if regulators did their job. It kept buying out newer social media platforms. Young people don't want to use what old people use, they jump off and find something else, and that's why previous platforms kept dying. Zuckerburg with his money and perhaps even big media assistance and of course the government looking the other way violated all those anti-trust regulations to funnel internet traffic through Facebook, at one point it was 75% of all traffic, I'm not sure if that's the case now, hopefully that declined. Prior to Facebook the traffic was more spread out and more things were anonymous, similar to this website for instance, so privacy was less of an issue.

Is the mainstream base that FB captured incapable of using the internet properly? Perhaps, in which case the demand will exist and even if the company changes, the same interested groups will be behind that consolidation. However if the answer is negative, then FB should be allowed to fade or only keep that dwindling base of old people, while everyone else gets to be free to not be on it and to use alternative choices. And there really should be regulation preventing employers from requiring and looking at social media, including LinkedIn, for the interests of privacy.