Facebook shuts down its live shopping feature, Motorola cancels the launch of its foldable phone, and Robinhood fires almost a quarter of its staff.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Thursday, August 4, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Facebook is shutting down its live shopping feature at the beginning of October to focus on Reels, the company’s short-form video feature. In a blog post, the company says that after October 1s t, users will no longer be able to host any new or scheduled live shopping events on the platform. Users can still use Facebook Live to broadcast live events, but they won’t be able to create product playlists or tag products in Facebook Live videos. Facebook isn’t the only social media giant scaling back its live shopping services. TikTok has reportedly dropped plans to expand its live e-commerce “TikTok Shop” initiative to the U.S. and parts of Europe, according to a TechCrunch article.
Source: TechCrunch
Motorola cancelled the unveiling event for its upcoming foldable Razr and X30 Pro smartphones at the last minute. In a statement on its official Weibo page, the company apologized for the cancellation without an explanation. “We are deeply sorry for this, and thank you for your enthusiastic support for Moto’s new products,” the company wrote. This event had been heavily promoted by the company itself across social media platforms in China, with posts including videos of the new devices. Motorola also noted that details about new phones can be found on its official information platform.
Source: Mobile World Live
Robinhood is letting go of nearly a quarter of its staff. In a message posted on the company’s blog, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev said that this is a part of a broader company reorganization into a general manager structure. Tenev added that these changes mainly impact employees in operations, marketing, and program management. The announcements came as Robinhood posted a 44 per cent drop in revenue in its Q2 2022 earnings report. Additionally, Robinhood’s chief product officer is also stepping down from her post as part of the restructuring, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Source: The Verge
Robots are making their way into the world of beauty. Target is rolling out a new robot-based manicure by Clockwork, a company that uses robots to perform mundane tasks. One such task is the “Minicure,” which uses AI and robotics to perform a manicure in just 10 minutes. The Minicure service is only available in six Target locations in Minnesota, Texas and California. But the robot isn’t fully autonomous yet. A CNN business reporter who tried out the service noted that the robot still needs a human attendant nearby to make sure the machine doesn’t get clogged or painted outside the line.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Tom Li.