In a surprising turn of events, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has declined the offer to join Twitter’s board. After a week of anticipation and memes, the CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, has shared a post letting people know that the billionaire will not be joining Twitter’s board of directors after all. This came as a surprise to so many especially because Elon Musk seemed to be somewhat excited to attend the first board meeting in the past week.

Elon Musk is Twitter’s Largest Shareholder

Barely a week ago, Musk became Twitter’s largest shareholder when he bought nearly 10% stake of the social media giant. Parag Agrawal took to Twitter to welcome Musk to the company and shared that they’re officially appointing him to the board. Former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, also welcomed the Tesla CEO and expressed his joy over him joining the company and teaming up with Agrawal adding that he believes the duo is exactly what Twitter needs right now.

Since then, memes and jokes have been flying on Twitter over Elon Musk’s first board meeting, one in particular shared by the billionaire himself. Most of these memes show enthusiasm for the appointment. Musk has been actively showing interest in the things he wants to change about Twitter. Like the fact that most of the platform’s biggest accounts rarely tweet and that he wants to include an ‘edit’ button and make a few changes to the ‘Twitter Blue’ feature by integrating Dogecoin as a payment method for it.

He shared an idea that suggests Dogecoin be used as a payment method for people to purchase Twitter Blue, a feature that makes an ‘edit’ button available to a tweet for a few seconds after its sent. The tweet came as a response to a Twitter user who asked Musk to make Twitter Blue cheaper than $3 for Argentinians as the amount is really expensive in their currency. Musk replied “Yes, should be proportionate to affordability & in local currency” and then added, a couple minutes later, “Maybe even an option to pay in Doge?” 

Elon Musk Declines to Join Twitter’s Board

After all these, you can see why a lot of people are shocked that Elon Musk declined to join the platform’s board. As shared in a post by Agarawal, Musk’s appointment was to be effective starting Saturday morning, April 9th, but the billionaire has shared, on the very same morning, that he will no longer be joining the board. Agrawal added that whether or not he’s on the board, Musk’s opinions and inputs will still hold value as with all their other shareholders.

This news comes two days after Musk, Jack Dorsey and Adam Back collaborated to launch a solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility in Texas. CNBC shared that the facility is to be finished later in the year. Adam Back’s Blockstream will be in charge of supplying the mining equipment as well as the facility’s engineers, and providing reports on the project’s progress.

Elon Musk has shared several posts about the facility. Although he is yet to post anything about his rejection to join Twitter’s board. It has been 48 hours since he last tweeted anything and I am sure a lot of people are eagerly waiting to hear from him. 

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Billionaire Elon Musk has yet again made headlines as the Tesla and SpaceX CEO recently bought a 9.2% stake in social media company Twitter.

According to the new SEC Filing, Musk holds 73,486,938 shares in Twitter, representing nearly a 9.2% worth of passive stake in the company, which makes him one of the biggest shareholders of the platform.

Musk Buys 9.2% Stake In Social Media Company Twitter

According to the Securities and Exchange 13G Filing shared on Monday, Musk has acquired a 9.2% stake in Twitter which is worth $2.89 billion. The particular investment has made Musk one of the biggest shareholders of the platform.

Previously, Musk had organized a survey poll on Twitter, asking his followers to provide insight on whether the social media company adheres to the principles of free speech.

Since the majority of people responded no, the Tesla CEO had stated that he was giving some “serious thought” to launching a platform of his own.

Musk acquiring a stake in Twitter has significantly impacted the prices of its shares, which have surged a striking 27% after the SEC 13G filing was revealed on Monday. The filing also shows that the purchased Twitter shares are held by Musk’s Revocable Trust, of which he is the sole trustee. Moreover, the surge in shares added $8.38 billion to Twitter’s market cap, which currently sits at $40.8 billion.

Musk is known as an ardent Twitter user and has always utilized the social media platform to openly voice his opinions on critical matters. Moreover, the Tesla chief boasts a following of 80 million followers, making him one of the biggest tech personalities on Twitter.

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The top right-hand man of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway company, Charlie Munger, recently dropped a provocative bombshell on the crypto world, after likening the frenzy around bitcoin and altcoins adoptions to “venereal disease”. A disgusted Charlie, during a Q&A session at the LA-based Daily Journal Corp, openly blurted:

“I’m proud of the fact that I avoided it. It’s like some venereal disease. I just regard it as beneath contempt. Some people think it’s modernity, and they welcome a currency that’s so useful n extortions and kidnappings [and] tax evasion.”

Charlie, a 98-year-old billionaire who has remained an unflinching critic of the developments around cryptocurrencies, spared no horses in expressing, once again, his disgust for the hype and growth around cryptocurrencies. In the footsteps of his boss, Warren Buffett, who once referred to cryptos as rat poison, Charlie once again riled up the crypto Twitter community, provoking an avalanche of reactions that relegate his opinions on crypto to the realm of obsolescence.

Of all comments posted, Elon musk’s was widely received as the Tesla techno King walked Charlie Munger down memory lane to a one-on-one conversation in 2009, on how his verbal pessimism over the concept of Tesla almost drained Elon of the enthusiasm needed to kick-start Tesla.

By Elon’s tweet, observers have deduced the tendency for the veteran investor to be on the wrong side of history with crypto. Mungo’s reiteration of much ill news that has beclouded the use of cryptocurrencies—which is not uncommon to the case for fiat currencies—goes to show the demography that has backed bitcoin over the past few years are well above Munger’s peers.

But a cursory look at the books of Berkshire Hathaway where Munger had served for 44 years, shows how, contrary to voiced opinions, it may rethink its perceptions about crypto investment. The latest $1 billion investment in Brazil-based mainstream bank Nubank has shown that Warren Buffett is ultimately interested in reaping reasonable gains from companies that are attuned to modern innovations not excluding cryptocurrencies.

Nubank in May last year gained the Bitcoin ETF issuing company, Eazynvest, to capture crypto investors across Latin America. By proxy, Buffett can be called a crypto-investor, having financed the growth of Latin America’s biggest bank towards Fintech and crypto services. 

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SpaceX– Elon Musk’s aerospace company, just launched two NASA astronauts into space. SpaceX is a privately owned American aeronautic manufacturing and space exploration technologies corporation, founded sometime in 2002 with the primary intention of revolutionizing space technology and promoting the emigration to mars through reduced space transportation cost. SpaceX group, an enterprise spearheaded by one of the most innovative minds of our times, has introduced a new age of human spaceflight in the United States. The project codenamed ‘Crew Dragon Mission’ was the second attempt by the company to launch spacemen into the orbit, over the last two decades – as the first attempt from three days ago was canceled a few minutes before take-off due to stormy weather.

This most recent development is part of NASA’s Artemis program. It comes as a relish to NASA and SpaceX since the automated spacecraft manufacturer was sanctioned by NASA barely two weeks ago to develop a lunar optimized Starship that would transport its crew between the lunar orbit and the surface of the moon. The two astronauts involved in this record-breaking venture are; Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley – both of whom are NASA veteran space travelers.

NASA astronauts Doug and Bob lifted off circa 15:22 UTC on Saturday, 30 May 2020, from Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida – which happens to be the same launch pad used to send the Apollo astronauts to the moon fifty years ago. Notably, the launch of the SpaceX aero flights – Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon crew capsule, from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to the International Space Station (ISS) marks the first time in 9 years since a spacecraft has been launched from American soil and also the first time a private company has done it.

The NASA astronauts have successfully arrived at the International Space Station. In attendance to witness the event in Florida was President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and the SLOTUS – Karen Pence of the United States of America.

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In the race for new and improved virtual assistance services, Apple is once again, yet to take the lead through its acquisition of the Ontario-based machine learning startup – Inductiv. The brains behind Inductiv include professors from Stanford University, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Waterloo – in the persons of Christopher Ré, Theodoros Rekatsinas, and Ihab Ilyas. This band of Engineering professors is the latest supplement to Apple’s development team in addition to the company’s myriad of Engineers from Silicon Valley, slated to work on the Siri among other things. Apparently, this team of professors would be working on the AI, Machine learning, and data science section of the company – an important aspect of Apple’s deep learning strategy. In a statement provided by Apple’s spokesperson, the deal has been sealed and stamped. The representative further confirmed the deal with a rather unapologetic tune, asserting that it;

“buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans.” 

The idea of virtual assistance is to make life a lot easier as these software agents make it easiest to navigate between the software and programs of an operating system. Inductiv has been focused on developing technologies that utilize machine learning to automate a hassle-free procedure of identifying and correcting erratic datasets in the past. Evidently, having authentic data is key to ensuring a seamless and robust AI functionality which is why AI and data science are essential to a machine learning ecosystem. Through deep Learning and AI, these virtual assistive technologies could be programmed to automate certain processes that would normally require human interaction. By this, you can make your assistant do your phone’s tasks for you – such as make your calls, send important emails, and even entertain you during your leisure time, while you just sit back and relax. 

Although, Apple’s senior vice president of Machine Learning and AI Strategy – John Giannandrea, has indicated the company’s interest to work on a few improvements with regards to Siri and other AI-powered products from the company. However, the iPhone maker has drastically slacked in the niche of virtual assistance in recent times. Giving way for other competitors such as Microsoft’s Cortana, Google Home, and Amazon Alexa. According to research conducted a couple of years ago by Forbes, Siri ranked number 4 on the top 10 list of virtual assisting technologies for mobile and still is at present.

Apparently, this comes as a huge blow on the overall image of Apple’s technological growth, given that Siri was the pioneer software in the sphere of voice-controlled assistive technology. Since it provided the prototype from which other virtual assisting apps borrowed their ideas. Little wonder why Apple has been acquiring a host of AI-related startup companies in most recent times including NextVR,  Xnor.ai, Deep Fusion, Tuplejump, Laserlike, Voysis, Turi, and Perceptio.

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During his visit to Apple’s MacBook Pro manufactory in Austin, Texas, President Donald Trump urged the tech giant to see to the provision of a 5G network in the U.S. This was revealed in the event of acknowledging Apple’s billion-dollar campus project – by the US President.

According to a tweet by Tim Cook – the CEO of Apple, this campus is said to have been in existence since 2013. However, it was officially launched on Wednesday with an expectation to accommodate over 5,000 employees, and the capacity to house 10,000 more in the near future. Also, this facility serving to be the primary production unit of Apple’s MacBook PCs demonstrates Apple’s loyalty to its home country. And Because Apple didn’t move its production of the desktop computers to China as earlier announced. Cook loftily asserts that;

“Building the Mac Pro, Apple’s most powerful device ever, in Austin is both a point of pride and a testament to the enduring power of American ingenuity.” and “With the construction of our new campus in Austin now underway, Apple is deepening our close bond with the city and the talented and diverse workforce that calls it home. Responsible for 2.4 million American jobs and counting, Apple is eager to write our next chapter here and to keep contributing to America’s innovation story.”

Evidently, Trump’s call on Apple for 5G tech comes as a bid for the US to be at the forefront of the US-China trade war. And as China continues to pioneer the 5G flag flawlessly. Subsequently places the US on detriment on the trade ban with these Chinese companies.

Although there has been recent news about other telecoms service providers as Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-mobile, making the 5G LTE network available in the US. However, the trend currently cuts across only a select few cities and not yet widespread in the US.

Hence Trump leveraged on Apple’s vast resources to call upon the companies’ involvement in the fifth generation of cellular network technology. Requesting Apple to provide 5G to the masses in the US, as it is currently in China.

Even though 5G technology does not fall under Apple’s niche, Trump nonetheless beseeched Cook with the question during this event. Although the official paper by the White House about the visit does not document any statement relating to 5G technology.

This was however confirmed following a tweet by the President on Thursday;

Tweet:

The fact that Trump requests for Apple’s involvement in 5G technology either bespeaks the President’s tech ineptness, which is understandable. Or probably an indication of the close tie that exists between the President and Apple’s CEO.

A fact that does not inspire with awe, as Trump had earlier considered excluding Apple from China tariffs at the said event. But what strikes a wonder is whether Apple would answer to this call or remain adamant towards its involvement with cellular network technology.

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In the wake of the US-China trade war that has seen such technology companies as Huawei, Google, Hikvision, Megvii Technology, Tesla, iFlytek Co, NVIDIA, SenseTime, Dahua Technology, Intel Corp alongside a host of others experiencing a breach in trade due to the international trade restrictions.

And even though the trend of events that follows afterward may be detrimental to both nations on a long term basis including the global economy at large. The governments of the two largest economies in the world seem to be adamant towards admonishing the trade rift between them.

In furtherance, Donald Trump’s administration seems to be at the forefront of fueling the trade dispute since it bears the burden of initiating the tariff that started the trade war. In a press release on Monday, President Donald Trump accused Hong Kong of getting involved in anti-human practices against the Muslim community – particularly the Uighurs and other minority Muslims. By means of illegal surveillance feeds from top surveillance hardware companies as Hikvision and Dahua Technology, China was able to detain over a million Muslims. 

In light of this, Trump claims that the events in Xinjiang could pose a threat to countries involved in trade with the aforementioned companies, therefore the 28 list ban. Furthermore, the US imposed restrictions on China to the tune of over $360 billion in tariff on Chinese commodities as well as various other constraints on Chinese investments in the United States. With talks about limiting exportation services to China if they are not forthcoming, Trump added that;

“I think they’re coming to make a deal, It’s got to be a fair deal.”

In the ensuing trade-war, the US State Department also issued a visa embargo on some Chinese officials that Washinton termed as ‘committing acts that are unacceptable’. Following the course of these happenings, the US went on to amend the Export Administration Regulations (EAR). By increasing the number of Chinese entities banned from engaging in whatever form of trade with any company registered in the US as of Tuesday, 8th October. Hence the entity list was updated with 28 Chinese companies in addition to the six companies already present on the list.

Accordingly, Ted Bauman – An Economist and Expert Analyst at Banyan Hill Publishing, pinpoints these moves as a strategy employed by the US bureau towards subjecting the Chinese Government to utter pressure on multiple levels. From Bauman’s point of view, this comes as a notice to the upcoming trade talks between the two nations in Washington later this week. In addition, he added that the Chinese Government is ready and prepared to stretch the trade wars to greater lengths, asserting that;

“The latest blacklist announcement is consistent with the Trump administration’s strategy of seeking new sources of leverage in the ongoing trade negotiation. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this announcement came hard on the heels of leaked reports that they are considering limiting U.S. investor capital flows to Chinese companies. It’s as if the administration has realized that the Chinese are not going to back down in the face of increased U.S. tariffs, so they are casting around for other ways to threaten the Chinese.” 

This new development has discouraged the trust that once existed in the trading sector on a global scale. Given that it has the potential to trim company return margins in both nations. As it subsequently encourages the Chinese Government to deter funding of Chinese companies by US Investors.

Even though the US seems to be nonchalant towards a conclusive detente, it is evident that the economic state of the country has been posed with more threatening effects than that of the Chinese. And as such the Xi Jinping administration recently aired its indifference with regards to the trade talks as it is not phased by whatever the outcome may be.

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Technology is widely cutting across all facets of the global economy such that even the most ordinary accessories such as clothing are becoming instruments of technological advancements. Just a while ago, Google renewed its partnership with Levi Strauss – An American Clothing Company, to launch an upgraded version of the Jacquard jacket which is tech-enabled. 

The denim jacket is embedded with a small tab-like chip on the sleeve that permits Users to remotely access their smartphone devices right on the go, just in semblances to a touchpad. Additionally, this neoteric invention accessorizes the denim jacket with features that allows the wearer to answer calls, control your music, and get directions just by hand gestures such as swiping, touching and tapping the jacket cuff. 

The San Francisco-based clothing line announced on Monday that it would be teaming up with Google to incorporate the ‘Jacquard tag’ technology in its latest denim designs. Publishing that the Trucker and Sherpa Trucker Jackets for both men and women would roll out with the integrated ‘Jacquard Tag’ on Thursday, 3rd October, in some select few Levi stores in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and US at a cost price of $198 for the classic Trucker and $248 for the Sherpa Trucker Jacker.

Even though this is not the first time Google is teaming up with a Clothing line company to distribute a smart accessory as it partnered with Yves Saint Laurent to produce a smart backpack sometime in 2016. More so the Multinational Technology Company had earlier partnered with the Levi in 2017 to debut the first-ever smart jacket. 

However, this latest innovation is only an enhanced model that fraughts with a smaller tag that can hardly be detected. In accordance to a press release by Paul Dillinger – The Vice President of Global Product Innovation at Levi, this new technology allows users to stay connected to their Smartphones at all point in time, stating that;

“Two years after we first launched Jacquard, the technology has become smaller and more discrete, more affordable and more useful, But the premise and purpose remain the same: You can keep your phone in your pocket and your eyes on the world around you, staying connected without being distracted.”

This research development was part of Google’s ATAP (Advanced Technology And Projects) that provisions designers the required tools to create highly connected products. With features such as getting a notification alert whenever your phone gets separated from your jacket, by means of such gestures as tapping the jacket to take photos on your phone’s camera, tagging where your car was parked and a lot more. Google further anticipates adding more functionality to the ‘Jacquard Jacket’ to make it even more ‘smarter’ in the near future.

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Just recently Toyota announced the launch of a new solar-powered vehicle that never needs charging. By means of a highly flexible, ultra-slim and super-efficient solar panel affixed at the top of the car, this super-vehicle is believed to able to run for about 56 kilometers without a recharge, giving it an edge over conventional electric cars, hybrid vehicles, and hydrogen-powered automobiles. Consequently eradicating the need to plug in your Electric Vehicle (EV) intermittently and embrace the world of electric cars that recharges itself on the go.

Following an interview with Toyota’s Project Manager – Koji Makino by Bloomberg, who confirmed that this electric car is one of a kind. Adding that; 

“The solar car’s advantage is that — while it can’t drive for a long-range — it’s really independent of charging facilities,”

Dubbed a unique car that could “run for ever” by Bloomberg, this technology comes to life through a partnership agreement between Toyota, Sharp, and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) of Japan. 

Notably, the Toyota Prius-prototype’s build comes with a 0.03 mm thick solar-panel sheet that spreads all over the hood and from the rear hatchback through to the roof. Providing enough reception to store a tremendous amount of solar energy. These powerful solar cells together with a durable battery of immense capacity are designed to house enough electrical energy to power the car up to 35 miles at night. Which is about 9 times more efficient than the current model at hand. 

Hence the director at the solar energy systems division of NEDO – Mitsuhiro Yamazaki, describes the experimental Toyota Prius solar car as being able to be driven to as far as 50 kilometers each day, for four days in a week without charging. In his words; 

“If the car is driven 4 days a week for a maximum of 50 km a day, there’s no need to plug into an outlet”.

In spite of the criticism towards this neoteric development such as the belief by expert analysts that this technology still needs a few more years to ‘cultivate’ as it is still in its nursing stage. Evidently, there is still a lot of work to be done in order to achieve the kind of solar power needed to efficiently fuel the solar car. 

That been said Toyota, however, surpasses this hurdle through its affiliation with Sharp. Whereas the advanced solar panels provisioned by Sharp is capable of converting sunlight efficiently at a rate of over 14% more than the average solar panels available on the market nowadays.

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Social media tech giant – Facebook has recently aired its plans to remove the like button and subsequently the likes count, in order to reduce what is considered ‘superficial comparison’ between members of the social network.

Even though the advantage of social networking fraughts with a number of opportunities as a universally connected unit, with it, also comes a few detriments such as an unhealthy ‘emotional connection’.

Hence Facebook’s decision against the ‘like count’ arises as a result of a continuous uprise in the mental and psychological effects social media has on the general public on a global scale. Following a research conducted by the Florida-based Behavioral Health Center, it was perceived that those who were more engaged with social media platforms are about 2.7 times more likely to be depressed.

Furthermore, a top tier tech blogging site – TechCrunch, who confronted close associates of the California-based social media company directly, relays a similar opinion towards this as it stipulated thus; 

“The problem is that people have so many fewer of those big moments, and the large Like counts they attract can make other users self-conscious of their own lives and content. That’s all problematic for Facebook’s ad views.”

Apparently its sister company – Instagram, is already in the testing phase of implementing the removal of the ‘like button’ altogether with the ‘like counts’. With plans to launch this new feature in seven countries including Canada and Brazil.

Instagram would enforce this new idea by displaying the names of some mutual friends who like a certain post rather than show the total number of likes.

Although Facebook is known to be a pioneer of today’s social networking ecosystem, experts however identify this move as a bold one that could either ‘encourage users to share posts as it eradicated the element of comparison’ nor ‘reduce the greater majority of users who have now come dwell in the recent social media ‘hype’ or ‘like’ as the case may be.

Let’s all assume the former would take because the latter bears a cost that could have the social networking behemoth struggling throughout the next decade. 

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