It’s all the tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Tuesday, Sept. 15, and I’m your host Baneet Braich.
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Oracle has won the TikTok sweepstakes, beating Microsoft and Walmart. Once the deal is finalized, Oracle will become TikTok’s new trusted technology partner in the U.S. One source told CNN that the deal was to satisfy the Trump administration’s security concerns about TikTok. It’s also known that one of Oracle’s founders has publically backed Trump and his administration, and although not a whole lot is known from the deal, CNN says that there are no deals about giving up the Chinese algorithm from TikTok owner ByteDance to US buyers, which may have been the out point for Microsoft. China might see this as a better political alignment to the US market however don’t expect them to spill the secret sauce entirely.
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Double-check to make sure that your AirPods are not a fake. US Customs and Border Protection tweeted that they seized 2,000 counterfeit Apple AirPods from Hong Kong valued at nearly $400,000 US had they been genuine. Looks like the earbuds appear to be legitimate OnePlus Buds in a box. The earbuds were heading to Nevada but not anymore.
Okay here is some surprising nostalgic news. Vinyl records have surpassed the sale of CDs for the first time since the 1980s in the U.S. Vinyl records sales were $232.1 million in the first half of the year, compared to CDs with sales of only $129.9 million, according to a report from the Recording Industry Association of America. Sales for vinyl have been growing since 2005 but music streaming still continues to boom. Just in the first half of 2020, streaming services grew 12% to $4.8 billion during the first six months of 2020.
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 Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. I’m Baneet Braich, thanks for listening.