Welcome back to Week in Review. This week: Bluesky's big user surge, Elon Musk co-leading Trump's "Department of Government Efficiency," and Mark Zuckerberg's latest foray in extreme wife-guy behavior. Let's go.
Bluesky is seeing a major surge as X users unhappy with the platform’s latest policy decisions make the move to the competitor social network. The decentralized social media platform has grown to more than 16 million users, including Swifties. If you’re making the switch — or at least wanting to see if the grass is greener (or bluer) on the other side — we’ve put together a guide on how to get started.
For the sixth time this year, Tesla's Cybertruck is being recalled, this time for 2,431 units. The trucks are or were fitted with a faulty drive inverter, according to a report Tesla filed. Unlike last month's recall of Cybertrucks, which was remedied by an over-the-air update, Tesla will have to physically replace the drive inverters recalled in this batch. According to the EV maker, it would do so free of charge.
Elon Musk will colead President-elect Donald Trump's Department of Government Efficiency, the acronym for which references Musk's favorite cryptocurrency. Musk will lead the department with biotech entrepreneur and former presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy as he helps Donald Trump's administration "dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure federal agencies.".
Mark Zuckerberg ???? T-Pain: Mark Zuckerberg convinced T-Pain to come up with and record an acoustic cover of Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz's "Get Low" for his wife, Priscilla Chan. No need to fret, though-there is belting done of that notorious "to the window, to the wall" portion.
Standing desks aren't as healthy as you think: Sorry, standing desk users, but a new study found that standing for more than two hours a day doesn't protect against cardiovascular risks and actually heightens an individual's risk of circulatory problems.
Talk Tuah dating coach: Social media star Haliey Welch has launched Pookie Tools, an AI-powered dating advice app for Gen Z singles. The app’s chatbot helps write conversation starters, while another tool predicts if a potential match is lying about their height.
$200M writer: Generative AI startup raises $200 million at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand the platform. CEO May Habib says the new cash will be used for product development and "cementing the company's leadership in the enterprise generative AI category.".
These new stores include Amazon's current battles against newer, faster-growing competitors like Temu and Shein. The new storefront Amazon has built is the Amazon Haul store, offering cheap, mass-manufactured products that are shipped in from China.
Just Eat sells off Grubhub: The Dutch food delivery company sells Grubhub to Wonder Group in a $650 million deal--a stark 91% less than the $7.3 billion that Just Eat Takeaway paid for the company just four years ago.
SBF is coming to the big screen: Lena Dunham is teaming with Apple and A24 on a film adaptation of Michael Lewis's book "Going Infinite," chronicling the life of Sam Bankman-Fried and the implosion of FTX. Now wonder who will be cast as SBF…
Expect much more video slop from AI: InVideo starts rolling out the generative AI-powered video creation feature which will enable users to create content based on prompts in any style: live-action, animated or anime.
According to reports, Apple will show off a tablet that mounts on your wall, controls home appliances and does video calls as early as March 2025. The device would not miss Apple Intelligence, naturally.
Ads come to Perplexity: The search engine, powered by AI, is now experimenting with ads. A sneak peek at the site - which is launching with an ad push in the United States - shows them as "sponsored follow-up questions" from the likes of Indeed, Whole Foods, Universal McCann, and PMG.
You can now play "Hot Cross Buns" on your phone: Artinoise's latest product is rethinking the plastic recorder. The portable device could be plugged into any smartphone, tablet or PC with a USB-C port thereby instantly transforming it into a musical instrument.