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Tech Hangover: WTF is Apple and Tim Cook up to?

Hmmm, something smells fishy.

Tech hangover tim cook
Image: KnowTechie

We get it, you have a life. There’s no way you can read all of the day’s news in one single shot, let alone visit every web page, which is why we’re here to help. Well, sort of.

There’s a ton of tech news we weren’t able to cover throughout the day (hey, give us a break, we’re a small independent outfit), so to help you stay up to speed with everything we didn’t get to, we rounded up some of the biggest stories, which should help you keep up to date. Hence the tech hangover

Here’s some tech news you probably missed out on today (and when we say you, we mean us, but also…you).

Why Did Apple Just Host a Campaign Event for Trump in Texas?

Apple ceo tim cook on stage

Image: Roberto Baldwin / The Next Web

No, Apple isn’t opening a new manufacturing plant in Texas. Trump is either misinformed or he’s straight-up lying. What exactly is going on with this? Why isn’t Tim Cook correcting him?

It wasn’t an official campaign event, but it might as well have been. When Donald Trump flew in Air Force One to Austin, Texas, on Wednesday, the president got a tour of the small factory that’s assembling Apple’s Mac Pro computers. This is the same factory that’s been churning out that older Mac Pro models since 2013, but that fact apparently didn’t seem to matter to the president. Right after the visit, Trump took credit for opening the factory and took a swipe at Democrats. Apple hasn’t said a word about the truth. – Gizmodo

Twitter rolls out its ‘Hide Replies’ feature to all users worldwide

Twitter logo on screen with tweetdeck

Image: Marketing Land

This should be fun to try.

Twitter’s radical “Hide Replies” feature, one of the biggest changes to how Twitter works since the invention of the Retweet, is now available to Twitter’s global user base. The company says the feature will roll out to all Twitter users across platforms by today, with only one slight tweak since earlier tests. – TechCrunch

Trump hosted Zuckerberg for undisclosed dinner at the White House in October

Donald trump twitter google left leaning

Image: ABC News / Getty Images

What the heck is lizard-man Zuckerberg up to?  I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t like this one bit. Something smells fishy.

President Donald Trump hosted a previously undisclosed dinner with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook board member Peter Thiel at the White House in October, the company told NBC News on Wednesday. – NBC News

WeWork lays off 2,400 employees

Wework

Image: The Business Journals

This is a rough hit. The WeWork employees being laid off don’t deserve this. A lot of people are losing their jobs, meanwhile one of its founders just scored a huge payday.

In a statement, a WeWork spokesperson said the cuts were being made as part of the company’s efforts to “create a more efficient organization” and refocus on the core office-sharing business. The job reductions represent 19% of WeWork’s total workforce, which amounted to 12,500 employees as of June 30, according to an SEC filing. – CNBC

Apple pulls all customer reviews from online Apple Store

The movie db

Image: Apple App Store

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

On November 17, Apple removed the “Ratings & Reviews” section from all product pages on the Apple website. It is currently unclear what has prompted this decision, nor when Apple will bring back the option to read the opinions of other customers at the time of purchase. – Apple Insider

AI software defines people as male or female. That’s a problem

Facial recognition at a music festival

Image: Fight For The Future

I don’t know, maybe AI software that identifies people isn’t a good idea? Clearly we’re having issues with it. In any event, this is definitely worth a read.

The way a computer sees gender isn’t always the same way people see it. A growing number of terms for describing one’s gender are becoming common in everyday life. “We need to push back on the idea that these systems should exist at all, and look at these kind of assumptions—that someone’s body or face or style or hair can kind of detect their interior state or identity.” – CNN

An Inside Look Into How TikTok Could Attempt to Win Over Influencers

Tiktok app on smartphone

Image: AP

Why doesn’t it surprise me that TikTok is paying influencers to join its platform? I mean, who isn’t doing it these days?

Contrary to what TikTok might tell most of its content creators, it appears a select few might be paid to join the short-form video service. A quick Google search conducted by Adweek yielded what appears to be a recent brief from influencer-focused agency Upfluence, laying out a proposal by which TikTok would attempt to recruit influencers off of Instagram and Youtube with the promise of hundreds of dollars to create “original, high quality content [that’s] meant to go viral.” – Adweek

And in just case you missed some of our stuff earlier, here’s what you may have missed:


Notable Mentions

Apple is making a big change to the way it tests new features for the iPhone after iOS 13’s messy release

Gmail on your phone is about to get more interactive

How one company you’ve never heard of swallowed tens of thousands of text messages — then spit them back out


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Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com or find him on Mastodon or Post.

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