Shares in Google parent Alphabet fell more than 10% in after-hours trading Wednesday, erasing tens of billions of dollars in stock market value from the $4tn tech giant. The company had reported lower-than-expected profit and a slowdown in its advertising business while it maintained big spending on AI. Net profit slid 25% from a year earlier to $26.2bn in the July-to-September period, or $2.12 a share, well short of expectations by analysts surveyed by FactSet. Alphabet booked an $8.7bn loss on its equity investments, which it attributed to its stake in SpaceX. Guardian 

Elon Musk is a “real genius”, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday after revealing the two are in “close” contact about satellite technology. The remarks came during the Russia-Africa Summit in Moscow, during which Putin discussed Russia’s own satellite internet project Rassvet, which provides internet connections to people from satellites. “He’s a genius, a real genius,” Putin said of Musk, according to a translation of his remarks by the BBC. “We are in close contact with our American partners, including Mr. Musk.” BBC 

Ofcom has set out its recommendations for the most effective ways to identify which of the UK’s millions of social media users are aged over 16. Under the UK’s social media ban – which is due to come into force in March next year – those under that age will be prevented from accessing ten of the biggest platforms, including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. Many UK adults are also likely to have to confirm that they are not under-age by using one of the proposed measures, which are subject to government approval. A similar ban was introduced in Australia last year but many children there have found ways to get round it. The UK says it intends to take a tougher approach. BBC

It’s one thing for Apple to say the new MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR has the best display on any laptop, and it’s another for it to put its money where it’s mouth is. During a briefing and demo the company showed us how the new MacBook Pro stacks up to a premium Windows laptop with a tandem OLED display in the Yoga Pro 9i Aura Edition, which retails for $3,399 and is currently on sale for $2,699….It took about 2 seconds to realize that the tandem OLED display on the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i is inferior to the PROLED XDR panel on the new MacBook Pro. Tom’s Guide 

Over the past year, Amazon has shaken up its Fire TV Stick lineup quite a bit. It all started when the company unveiled Vega OS, its new Linux-based operating system. Since then, Amazon has adopted a “multi-OS” approach, continuing to update Fire OS, the Android-based operating system it’s used on Fire TV devices for more than a decade, alongside Vega OS. Earlier this year, however, Amazon announced that all future Fire TV Sticks would run Vega OS. Since then, it’s released two new models: the and, most recently, the . After spending the past few weeks testing the new Fire TV Stick 4K, I’ve been impressed by its performance, design, and new remote, but other aspects have left me scratching my head. Pocket Lint 

There has been no shortage of controversy surrounding the iPhone Duo and more specifically its delicate hinge mechanism. We’ve seen numerous reports of inner display damage with Apple openly acknowledging the issue, claiming it only affects “a small number of iPhone Duo units” and that affected users should contact Apple for a replacement.

Image source: Vishnu_RK (Reddit)

But a report from Chinese outlet suggests Apple had “lowered its quality inspection standards” to get more Duo units out to retailers ahead of the holiday period. GSM Arena 

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