Following a trial in New Mexico, Judge Francis Mathew has just handed Meta its largest recorded fine. While the amount of $25bn is shocking. This is actually an adjusted reduction from the original calculation of $219bn.
The reason for such a large fine. Is that Meta or as it was previously called, Facebook. Had been for more than 11 years, illegally violating and misrepresenting how it was sharing and using data from the people in the state of New Mexico. Which is something that harkens back to Facebook’s role, in the 2016 Cambridge Analytica scandal.
If you are not up to speed on what happened between Cambridge Analytica and Facebook. Netflix has an excellent documentary called The Great Hack (2019). Which explains how personal data was used to manipulate voting intentions.
What’s interesting is that earlier in the year. Meta settled a different lawsuit with numerous US states, for $18bn. While this case was related to accusations regarding Meta using Facebook and Instagram to harm children.
Neither of these cases places Meta in a good light, and if what happened in New Mexico is but the tip of an iceberg. In the new year, I fully expect to see Meta in various courts around the world.
PC shipments fall!
In a recent Ars Technica article. It was reported that PC shipments have fallen by 20 percent, when compared to sales from the previous year. Something that equates to a decline of around 16 million units globally.
While the RAM and chip supply shortage caused by AI procurement, along with the ongoing war in the Gulf. Are perhaps the two major contributors for this decline in PC sales. I’m worried that this years reduction in sales could be an indicator of a more serious global crisis…
Then literally moments before I was due to post this article. Google, Microsoft and Amazon announced their quarterly results. Which according to the BBC, saw an near instant 12% or $500bn drop in Google’s value, a 22% fall in Intel’s share price, and a 6% drop in Amazon shares.
Microsoft to remove Copilot branding from Windows.
Staying on the topic of computers. After only 2 and a half years, Microsoft has decided to remove Copilot branding from Windows. So all those laptops with a Copilot key rather than a Windows key, are going to start to look very dated.
According to an Engadget article, this rebranding will start with a Notepad update, along with the removal of any mention of AI in the settings. However as I don’t consider this to be even a bare minimum in order to fix the numerous issues with Windows.
I for one, wish that rather than wasting time by adding and then removing lame ideas, or doing stupid re-brands like Copilot. Microsoft concentrates on what people actually want from an operating system, and make Windows leaner, more responsive and less resource hungry.
New models of Synology NAS!
For many years we have championed Synology’s range of Network Attached Storage. However, due to various decisions by the company, which have rubbed many customers the wrong way. Synology no longer seems to receive the attention it once did.
A case in point being that two months ago, Synology announced a new range of NAS devices called the Neo +. Something that we only found out about late in October. However, looking at Synology’s press statement. These new products may not be the olive branch to customers, that Synology thinks it is.
Sure this new line of hardware includes components that consumers have for years been asking for. Including more modern processors, M.2 slots for SSD caching, 2.5GbE network ports and the ability to use non-ECC DDR4 SODIMM RAM.
But actually looking at the prices for the DS725 and DS925 NEO+. If we compare them to one of Synology’s competitors. You can get either a 2 or 4 bay Asustor Drivestore 2 Pro for almost half the price. Which when combined with Synology’s decision to make the Neo + line, a supplement to Synology’s existing budget line. It just makes it even more confusing as to which model of Synology NAS to buy.
Content releases for this month.
Last month our video release schedule went badly wrong. In part because we had to patch a number of vulnerabilities on our website for a zero day, PHP exploit. But also because we just could not keep up video production while maintaining quality. So we decided that rather than rush something out, we would delay the release of videos for a couple of weeks.
The good news for November, is that we will be releasing the delayed videos at the end of the month. So in our first post, we are going to look at how you configure the Synology DS Audio app, so that it will work through the internet. Which while similar to the Synology Photos video we posted a couple of months ago. Has enough differences for us to give it its own dedicated video.
For our “What’s in my tech toolkit” video, we are going to take a look at an Anker 1688 battery pack. Something that’s a god send if we are working on a device low on charge, or if we want to test that a damaged USB port is still able to receive a charge.
As modern MacBooks have a notch or island at the top of their screen. You might find that as you add icons to the menu bar, the icons start to become obscured. So this month we will also be releasing a video on how in macOS, you can better manage the menu bar.
Then finally at the end of the month we will release our video on factory resetting, a Google Home Speaker. Something that Google do a little differently, when compared to performing factory resets on rival smart speakers like an Amazon Echo.
