New York City will provide free internet and cable services to residents of public housing, the metaverse has cost Mark Zuckerberg, and the airline industry still uses floppy disks.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Wednesday, September 21, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
New York City has partnered with two internet service providers to bring free internet and cable TV services to about 300,000 public housing residents. The program, called “Big Apple Connect” aims to close the connectivity gap between wealthier residents and lower-income people. According to an article by Bloomberg, an estimated 30 to 40 per cent of people who live in buildings run by the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) don’t have broadband. The city plans to have the service available in over 200 public housing buildings by the end of 2023. Under a three-year agreement with the providers, New York will pick up the cost at about $30 for each household. The city is now planning to speak with Verizon Communications to join the program.
Source: Bloomberg
Mark Zuckerberg’s investments in the metaverse have cost him a lot of money. His fortune has been cut in about half, dropping by $71 billion so far this year. At $56 billion, his net worth ranks 20th among global billionaires, his lowest spot since 2014. Last year, Zuckerbeg was worth $142 billion in September 2021, when the company’s shares reached as high as $382. In October, Zuckerberg introduced Meta, and rebranded the company, changing the name from Facebook. Since its rebrand, the company has seen some struggles. In February the company revealed no growth in monthly Facebook users, triggering a historic collapse in its stock price and cutting Zuckerberg’s fortune by $31 billion, among the biggest one-day declines in wealth ever. According to analysts, recent issues like the low engagement on its Instagram Reels feature along with low stocks, due to the company’s investments in the metaverse, could result in more money loss.
Source: Bloomberg
Tom Persky, the founder of floppydisk.com, a website that sells and recycles floppy disks, revealed the airline industry is one of his biggest customers. In a new book, he said, his biggest customers are industrial users. “These are people who use floppy disks as a way to get information in and out of a machine. Imagine it’s 1990, and you’re building a big industrial machine of one kind or another. You design it to last 50 years and you’d want to use the best technology available.” He added that about half of the air fleet in the world right now is over 20 years old, and still uses floppy disks in some of the avionics. He also said that even the medical sector still uses floppy disks.
Source: Business Insider
The Taliban has announced that it will impose a ban on PUBG, a video game series, and TikTok very soon. The reason for this ban is because of violent content in these apps. According to Taliban, PUBG and TikTok promote violent activities. The Taliban ban on PUBG and TikTok has been made by the Ministry of Telecommunication in Afghanistan. Following a joint meeting, the ministry ordered the telecommunication and internet service providers in the country to ban both PUBG and TikTok in the next three months.
Source: India Today
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.