Engadget

The NYT taught us all a valuable lesson on opportunity costs this week. Why spend the time and effort to develop a quality podcast in-house when you can sipky spend around $50 million to buy one of the most famous podcast production studios in the business? Let’s see how long the Times can go without gutting Serial Productions like they just did Wirecutter.

Engadget

You know your business has Scrooge McDuck money when you can follow up a billion dollar commitment to Bay Area housing with an additional $4 million to help fund local homeless services the very next year. Though if there’s one thing Silicon Valley has proven adept at, it’s the ability to spend massive amounts of money in the pursuit of mediocre results. Looking at you, Galaxy Fold.

Engadget

Folks you are not going to believe how sorry Facebook is for violating your privacy and using your information to illegally set up biometric databases back in 2015. The social media company is so ashamed of its actions so wants this lawsuit to go away that its tossing in an extra $100 million dollars on top of the $550 million settlement its already has to pay. Coincidentally, Mark Zuckerberg has personally made $30 billion since the start of the pandemic thanks to your data.

Engadget

Social media content creators are often treated much like NCAA athletes, expected to produce entertainment, not for money (which is how the rest of the economy works) but simply for “the love of the game.” That’s unacceptable so it’s great to see Tik-Tok of all social media sites doing something to fix it. The company announced last week that its forming a $200 Creators Fund to compensate its top talents.