As owner of X, Elon Musk wields incredible power on the world stage. But is he too powerful? These are the articles, podcasts, videos and more that caught the attention of TechCentral’s editorial team at the weekend.
- Inciting rioters in Britain was a test run for Elon Musk. Just see what he plans for America: Just how dangerous is Elon Musk? This piece may be a little conspiratorial – and that headline is pure clickbait – but it still raises a serious topic that deserves consideration and interrogation. Read more in The Observer. DM
- Gaming giants are looking to Africa for growth: Global gaming giants are increasingly looking to Africa for growth as the continent’s videogames market rapidly expands. Read more on Semafor. DM
- The vacuum of space will decay sooner than expected: Vacuum decay – a cosmic plot twist where the Higgs field could suddenly decide to hit “reset” – might happen 10 000 times sooner than expected. But don’t panic: “sooner” here still means aeons beyond our wildest imagination. When it does, the universe could get a dramatic makeover. Read more on Wired (soft paywall). DM
- Google threatened tech influencers unless they ‘preferred’ the Pixel: A Pixel 9 review agreement required influencers to showcase the Pixel over competitors or have their relationship terminated. No serious journalist would ever agree to such terms. But, hey, who needs journalistic ethics when you can just take a pretty picture with a hashtag? Read more on The Verge. DM
- Obayashi Corporation plans to start building a space elevator that could be completed by 2050: The elevator would consist of a large carbon nanotube that tethers Earth to a geostationary satellite beyond the planet’s atmosphere. Once finished, it would transport tourists 35 000km above Earth at the push of a button. More on TechEBlog. TS
- Microsoft is enabling BitLocker device encryption by default on Windows 11: Device encryption is designed to improve the security of Windows machines by automatically enabling BitLocker encryption on the Windows install drive and backing up the recovery key to a Microsoft account or Entra ID. More on The Verge. TS
- Watch supplies get delivered to astronauts stranded in space: Two astronauts are still stuck on the international space station after their craft became faulty. Fortunately, Nasa has managed to deliver supplies to the stranded duo as it scrambles to figure out how to get them back home. Watch the video on BBC News. NN
- How to break free of Spotify’s algorithm: Despite having access to more music than ever before at the press of a button, musical diversity is becoming less and less eclectic when left in the hands of machine learning algorithms on streaming platforms. But there is a way to break free. Read more in the MIT Technology Review. NN
The top stories on TechCentral over the weekend
- Beware the digital demagogues
- How Google’s search dominance threatens publishers in the AI era
- SABC to flight English Premier League – and Openview is included
- BNPL is taking off in South Africa
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