MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 9, 2023--

Twitter users are still reeling from the platform’s abrupt branding change to "X". The social media app changed its branding on Monday morning after scarcely a day’s notice, with many mocking the new look of the platform. Channel 4 got in there early by reminding Elon Musk, Twitter’s owner, of the time they tried to launch a major rebrand – and it didn’t quite stick. The broadcaster’s social media account posted: “People still call our streaming service 4OD so good luck”. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Channel 4’s 4OD was one of the first major on-demand TV services in the UK, where many people rediscovered classic shows such as Friends, Gogglebox and How I Met Your Mother. Eventually, however, network executives decided it was time to fix something that definitely was not broken, rebranding the service as All 4. The moniker clearly didn’t stick. Twitter executives will hope they have a little more success with their change. Meanwhile, billionaire Elon Musk has already faced significant criticism for the way he has handled the company since taking it over last year. He fired 80 per cent of the tech company’s staff last year, many finding out in brutal circumstances by opening their laptops and discovering they no longer had a job when the machine would not log them in anymore. The result, many commentators have agreed, is a degraded product, with major glitches including all links to external websites temporarily failing, and day-long caps on how many tweets users can look at. Musk has also restored the accounts of thousands of previously suspended users, including neo-Nazi and QAnon accounts. He also tried to restore former President Donald Trump’s account – but Trump wasn’t having any of it, preferring to stick with his own app, Truth Social. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By Lisa Baertlein LOS ANGELES Logistics startup Flexport on Tuesday unveiled services to make it easier for small

Autumnal heat will warm European capitals over the next 10 days, while heavy rain and thunderstorms range from

The world's youngest self-made billionaire has come out with some advice for people. Austin Russell, 28, who left Stanford University in 2012 to start his own hardware and software business, Luminar Technologies, after being awarded a $100,000 grant from the Peter Thiel Fellowship, said he recommends dropping out of university because it is "not for everyone". In an interview, he said: “If you’re wondering if I would have dropped out [without the grant], yeah. Absolutely. There was no doubt in anyone’s mind,” Austin stated. “It was going to happen anyway.” When asked if he would recommend dropping out of college to other students, the 28 year old entrepreneur stated: "Absolutely." Speaking to CNBC Make It, Austin continued: “College is not for everyone.It’s just sort of the traditional approach around what you do and what you’re supposed to do.” Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He added people can learn from the internet, not just university. "All this information is available at our fingertips now online," the Luminar Technologies founder said. "This is not something that was true 50 years ago, [but] it totally is true now." He added: “You can do all these kinds of things that were never possible. You can get through entire curriculums and annual courses in weeks if you watch it back to back. There are so many ways to get knowledge imparted upon oneself." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Japan is aiming to become the first country in the world to beam solar energy from space back to Earth to generate electricity at scale. A public-private partnership led by Japanese space agency JAXA will see the first satellite transmitters set up by 2025, according to local reports, The satellites will convert solar power into microwaves and send them to ground-based receiving stations, which then convert it into electrical energy. “If we can demonstrate our technology ahead of the rest of the world, it will also be a bargaining tool for space development with other countries,” Kyoto University professor Naoki Shinohara told Nikkei. The concept, which was first theorised in 1968, has several advantages over terrestrial solar power setups, notably being able to harvest solar energy for much longer, unhindered by the Sun’s typical cycle. Microwaves are capable of passing through clouds, so the technology is also able to operate in adverse weather conditions. Japan has already achieved several firsts in this field, having been the first to transmit power via microwaves in space in the 1980s. In 2015, JAXA scientists followed this up with another breakthrough that saw 1.8 kilowatts of power beamed down to an Earth-based receiver – roughly enough to power an electrical kettle. Several other countries and regions are also working on the technology, with the European Space Agency unveiling a plan last year to test the viability of space-based solar power. The Solaris program aims to make Europe a global leader in this untapped energy resource, with the hope of setting up a development program in 2025. More research still needs to be done before it becomes feasible at a significant scale, though recent advances in high-efficiency solar cells, wireless power transmission and robotic in-orbit assembly mean that China and the US are also working on ways to tap the Sun’s energy from space. Among the concerns surrounding the technology are the health impacts of low-power microwaves on humans, animals and plants. “These are the kind of technical questions that Solaris will look into, to explore further the feasibility of the concept,” Sanjay Vijendran, ESA’s lead for the Solaris proposal, said last year. “As an added plus, any breakthroughs achieved in these areas will be valuable in their own right, applicable to many other spaceflight endeavours.” Read More Scientists break world record for solar power window material Huge ‘plume’ seen coming out of nearby moon that could support alien life Elon Musk meets Chinese foreign minister on first visit for three years Mitigating ‘extinction’ from AI should be ‘global priority’, experts say

Kick, a relatively new streaming service, is posing a major threat to Twitch

Apple and Goldman Sachs look set to end their credit-card partnership despite extending it through 2029 just over a year ago.

Chris Tyson has spoken openly about their friendship with MrBeast, saying that the YouTuber has supported their gender since college. Tyson recently made headlines for sharing their journey with hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and has been the subject of transphobic trolling online. The treatment is generally used to help a person's body align with their gender identity. MrBeast recently hit back at social media users who claimed his affiliation with the YouTuber could be detrimental to his career. Tyson has appeared in many of his videos in the past. MrBeast, real name is Jimmy Donaldson, clapped back at these suggestions on social media, writing: "Yeah, this is getting absurd. Chris isn’t my “nightmare” he’s my f***en friend and things are fine. All this transphobia is starting to p*** me off." Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Spoke on GeorgeNotFound’s BANTER podcast, Tyson said that Donaldson had been aware of their gender identity for a long time. “I mean, Jimmy’s known it since we were in college together,” Chris said. “I accidentally walked out of a bedroom — like, my bedroom and his bedroom were apart…obviously not very cis-het-male. And I told him. I told him, I was like, ‘I don’t really know what it is. I don’t know if I’m ever gonna be ready to like, deal with it.'” “And he was like, ‘Oh yeah, you know, I don’t care. Just whenever it becomes a thing, just let me know.’ And then for like, seven years, or however many years, I just didn’t let him know.” In April, Tyson tweeted: "Informed consent HRT saved my and many others' lives. The hurdles gnc people have to jump through to get life-saving gender-affirming healthcare in a 1st world country is wild to me. Just let people make informed decisions about their own bodies". Despite the fact that MrBeast has been vocal in supporting Tyson, rumours had previously begun spreading online that Tyson had been dropped from MrBeast’s team after they didn’t appear in his recent video filmed in Japan. Responding to fan questions on a Snapchat stream, Tyson clarified that they had not been removed from the team. Instead, they had asked to spend more time with their two-year-old son Tucker. Asked if the rumours were true, Tyson said: “Nope, I pretty much told Jimmy [MrBeast], just because I want to spend time with Tucker, and he’s traveling a lot, I’m just going to come and go as I please.” Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Amouranth will soon be participating in a song project with Dream and Yung Gravy

To absolutely no one's surprise, Google's first-ever foldable smartphone has landed. The new Google Pixel

Google will soon notify you when your contact information shows up in Search, and make