Stack Overflow sold

Stack Overflow has been sold for $1.8 billion to the tech investor Prosus. Stack Overflow is the most popular website for developer in the world. Its resources are invaluable and available to everyone for free. Hopefully with new investor nothing will change in that matter

Apple's unrealized plans

The trial battle between Apple and Epic gave us insight into the inner-workings of the Apple. One of the sources of information are internal emails. One email in particular is very interesting because it's an agenda for a Steve Jobs' meeting from August 2007. Back the Apple was working on some unreleased products:

• 15-inch MacBook Air,
• Mac tablet,
• new iPod shuffle.

The 15-inch version of the MacBook Air has never been released or even rumored. The Mac Tablet is probably the iPad, which was released 3 years later. And the last, the iPod shuffle has never actually got an update.

Windows 11 is coming?

It looks like a new version of Windows is on the way. Microsoft announced a Windows event for June 24th. Software giant has been teasing this for a while, and it looks like it will be the biggest update in a decade. Recently Microsoft has been added  small, but cool features to the Windows, so hopefully the new version will follow this pattern.

Twitter Blue confirmed

A couple of weeks ago we had rumors about Twitter subscription service called Blue. This week we got confirmation that the rumors were true. For $2.99/month we will get:

• Undo tweet,
• Reader mode,
• Collections,
• Different theme colors,
• custom App Icons.  

Mac mini Pro?

It looks like we will get a high end version of the Mac mini. According to rumors, new version will have:

• new and smaller design, with Plexiglass top,
• magnetic power connector like in new iMacs,
• port will be the same as in the current Mac mini,
• the new Apple M1X chip that will be introduced later this year.

Google I/O 2021

This week we had the Google I/O conference and here are the biggest announcements.

Android 12

The newest version of the Android got a redesign and now with Material You allows to customize the color scheme of the phone. If you don't feel like an artist, Android has you covered and will automatically adjust colors based on your wallpaper. Beside design, Google also added features to control and monitor privacy.

Workspace

Google's Workspace will get more tools making online collaboration easier. One of them is ability to start a meeting right from Google Doc, Sheet and Slide.

Lamda

Lamda is a new Language processing AI. Its main goal is to help understand natural language and conversations. I have to admin, the demo, although prerecorded, was super impressive.

Starline

Another futuristic project is Starline. This technology recreates, in a real time, a 3D model of a person across from you. The main goal is  to recreate the feeling of having a face-to-face conversation.

Animated photos from still shots

Google Photos will be able to create an animated photo based on two still photos. The result will be the same as we have with live photos on iOS, but with Google solution we will be able to make animated version after the fact using the AI.

Password Manager

Password manager built into Android and Chrome will allow to change password on a website right from the manager.

Skin conditions

Google announce a new tool to monitor and check conditions that only require a phone with a camera. The tool should be available later this year.

Twitter Blue

Twitter is considering to introduce a subscription service called Blue. It will cost $2.99 per month. The subscription will include an "Undo Tweets", which will give users a short time to undo a tweet. Another feature is called "Collections" and will allow users to organize their favorite tweets.

At the moment, there is no information whether and when Twitter will rollout this service.

Doge to the moon

SpaceX will launch a satellite to the a moon in 2022. The satellite will be named Doge-1 and will be funded by Dogecoin as the company Geometric Energy Corp. bought the flight in meme cryptocurrency. Ellon Musk tweeted that this mission will have many firsts: the first crypto in space, and the first meme in space.

So, it look like Doge will be literally taken to the moon.

Starship has landed

SpaceX successfully landed a Starship prototype for the first time. Well, technically it's not the first one, but it's the first that survive the test. The Starship SN15 did the same test as previous prototypes. It launched itself achieving high altitude, and started free-falling. Then, just above the ground, prototype reoriented itself and softly landed on the landing pad.

This is a huge success for the SpaceX. If everything goes as planned, NASA might use Starships for the first two missions to the Moon by around 2024.

Apple vs Epic Games

This week we had the first round of hearings. Here are the takeaways:

• Apple consider changing the 70/30 split back in 2011. They considered to change it to 75/25 or even 80/20 when the pressure from competitors would be high enough,
• Apple tried to stop Netflix from abandoning in-app purchases,
• Tim Sweeney contacted Tim Cook about opening the AppStore in 2015,
• Epic would have taken a special deal from Apple,
• Epic is losing hundreds of millions on Epic Store,
• Fortnite made $9 billion in two years,
• Epic wanted Fortnite's multiplayer to be free on Xbox.

Image credits: SpaceX