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Apple Takes Another Step Towards ARM-based Macs

John Martellaro ·

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and Ian King report:

Apple Inc. hired one of ARM Holdings Inc.’s top chip engineers as the iPhone maker looks to expand its own chip development to more powerful devices, including the Mac, and new categories like a headset.

The company hired Mike Filippo in May for a chip architect position, according to his LinkedIn profile.

For Apple to divest the Mac of Intel CPUs while maintaining X86 compatibility will require some serious engineering skill. This looks like one step in the process.

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Twitter Starts Flagging Tweets From World Leaders That Break its Rules

Andrew Orr ·

In a blog post today, Twitter said it would start labeling tweets from Donald Trump government officials that break its rules against bullying and abusive behavior.

A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable.With this in mind, there are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain Tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules.

On the rare occasions when this happens, we’ll place a notice – a screen you have to click or tap through before you see the Tweet – to provide additional context and clarity. We’ll also take steps to make sure the Tweet is not algorithmically elevated on our service.

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Pokémon Masters Coming to iOS Later This Summer

Andrew Orr ·

A new game called Pokémon Masters is heading to iOS this summer. On the island of Pasio, players will form teams of Trainers and their partner Pokémon and engage in 3-on-3 real-time battles.

Players can team up with duos such as Korrina & Lucario, Brendan & Treecko, Clair & Kingdra, and many more. With all sorts of Trainers on Pasio, there are sure to be some exciting and unexpected encounters in this new story. At launch, there will be 65 sync pairs to recruit in Pokémon Masters, with additional sync pairs to come following the game’s release.

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Facebook's Cryptocurrency Reveals Its Real Aims

Charlotte Henry ·

Facebook’s announcement it was launching a cryptocurrency freaked lots of people out. It’s not just about privacy. It’s not too far-fetched to say that firms like Facebook are almost becoming countries in their own right, as Molly Wood outlined for Wired.

While Facebook’s ambitions appear unsubtle (at least to me), the biggest tech companies are all building more and more advanced and immersive ecosystems. So maybe it’s time to start asking: What is the functional difference between a company and a country? It’s not a crazy question: We’re already at a point where huge multinational tech monopsonies have so much power over the global economy that central bankers and regulators are starting to wonder if they even have the tools to set economic policy, like they used to in the old days.