Elon Musk told the SEC today that he will buy Twitter for the US$44b they agreed on months ago, but only if Twitter drops its lawsuit against him. Sounds like an obvious decision for Twitter and its shareholders, but what made Elon change his mind after all the bullshit he whipped up to not buy Twitter? Musk hasn't said why he changed his mind, but tweeted this morning that "Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app" - likely a reference to X.com, his startup that evolved into PayPal. Reading between the lines however, it's likely Elon is shitting himself at the prospect of the discovery process for the lawsuit digging up more dirt, the planned deposition for next week that will inevitably be made public and of course, the trial itself.
The EU has inched closer towards making USB-C charging mandatory for all "new mobile phones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones and headsets, handheld videogame consoles and portable speakers, e-readers, keyboards, mice, portable navigation systems, earbuds and laptops that are rechargeable via a wired cable" overnight. The laws will start being enforced by 2024, so Apple will have to put USB-C on the iPhone 17 at the latest. The iPhone is pretty much the only thing on that list of products that isn't USB-C already so in practice, it's just Apple that'll be dragged kicking and screaming. Thank you European Union!
Briar is an interesting secure messaging app. Unlike Signal, "Briar doesn't rely on a central server - messages are synchronized directly between the users' devices. If the internet's down, Briar can sync via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, keeping the information flowing in a crisis. If the internet's up, Briar can sync via the Tor network, protecting users and their relationships from surveillance". Keep this one handy for when society collapses and/or you're somewhere with a bunch of people but there's no internet.
📻 Everlong - Greta Stanley
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