Court rejects Elon Musk’s request to move Tesla shareholder trial out of San Francisco

A federal judge has denied Elon Musk’s request to move his upcoming trial against a group of Tesla shareholders to Texas, according to Bloomberg (via The Verge). On January 7th, less than two weeks before the trial was scheduled to begin on the 17th, M…

‘Madden NFL 23’ will drop CPR touchdown celebrations after Damar Hamlin cardiac arrest

Madden NFL 23 developer EA Sports says it will remove CPR touchdown celebrations from the game in light of Damar Hamlin’s recent life-threatening injury. Hamlin, a second-year safety with the Buffalo Bills, suffered an on-the-field cardiac ar…

Hyundai managed to put its ‘crab-walking’ e-Corner technology into an Ioniq EV

Five years after debuting at CES 2018, Hyundai’s e-Corner technology is closer to reality. Following its most recent appearance at CES 2021, the system was on display at last week’s show. And this time around, rather than building a dedicated prototype…

YouTube will begin sharing ad revenue with Shorts creators on February 1st

YouTube’s long-awaited revenue-sharing program for Shorts creators is nearly ready. Starting today, the company is rolling out a new Partner Program agreement ahead of February 1st, when creators can begin earning ad share revenue on their Shorts views. Creators have until July 10th to accept YouTube’s new Partner Program terms. As part of the change, the company is introducing new “Monetization Modules” to give creators more flexibility over how they earn money on YouTube — though the company recommends accepting all of them to unlock your full earning potential on the platform. As previously announced, creators with at least 1,000 subscribers and more than 10 million views on Shorts over a 90-day period can apply for the Partner Program. They then need to accept the new “Shorts Monetization Module.”

With Shorts revenue sharing rolling out, YouTube notes its $100 million creator fund is going away. However, the company expects most fund recipients to earn more through revenue sharing than they did through the fund. The formula YouTube has devised for determining how much each creator will make for their Shorts is complicated due to the involvement of music licensing. As YouTube users watch Shorts, the company will display ads between clips in the Shorts Feed. YouTube says the money generated by those ads will go towards paying music licensing companies and creators through a shared pool the company will divvy out at the end of each month. How much money ends up going to the creator pool will depend on the number of musical tracks creators feature in their Shorts. If you upload a clip with no music, then all the revenue associated with that video will go toward the creator pool. Conversely, when it comes to a Short with a single song, one-third of the related revenue will go toward paying for licensing. In a Short with two songs, two-thirds will go toward licensing. 

Once that’s all sorted out, YouTube will determine how to distribute the creator fund. The company will dole out the fund based on a creator’s share of total Shorts views. So say your videos accounted for 5 percent of all eligible Shorts views in your country for the month of February, you would then get 5 percent of the money in the fund, whether you used licensed music in your Shorts or not. YouTube then takes its 55 percent revenue cut, leaving you with 45 percent of what’s left. If your contribution to the Creator Pool was $1,000 one month, you would get $450 once everything is said and done.

Elon Musk asks court to move Tesla shareholder trial to Texas over potential juror bias

Elon Musk has asked a federal judge to move his upcoming Tesla shareholder trial out of San Francisco. Per the Associated Press, Alex Spiro, the billionaire’s personal lawyer, filed the request late Friday, less than two weeks before the trial is sched…

Twitter has reportedly laid off more of its global content moderation team

In what has become a monthly occurrence at Twitter, the company has cut more of its workforce. On Friday night, Twitter reportedly laid off “at least a dozen” workers across its Dublin and Singapore offices. According to Bloomberg, the casualties include Analuisa Dominguez, the company’s former senior director of revenue policy. The outlet reports that Twitter also cut workers responsible for handling the company’s misinformation policy, in addition to a handful of employees involved with the platform’s global appeals process and state media program.

Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, confirmed the company recently laid off more staff but disputed the teams impacted by the cuts. “It made more sense to consolidate teams under one leader (instead of two) for example,” she told Bloomberg, adding Twitter eliminated roles in areas where the company didn’t see enough “volume” to justify the talent expenditure. She also said Twitter increased staffing at its appeals department and would continue to have a head of revenue policy.

On November 21st, shortly after issuing his “extremely hardcore” ultimatum to Twitter employees, Elon Musk reportedly said the company wouldn’t fire or lay off any more workers during an all-hands meeting. While the scale of Twitter’s subsequent layoffs hasn’t matched those that came shortly after Musk’s takeover, the company has cut staff despite the billionaire’s pledge. The company let go of part of its infrastructure division halfway through last month. One recent estimate by The Information puts the company’s headcount at around 2,000 employees or a little over a quarter of what it had before Musk’s purchase.

Apple’s long-rumored mixed reality headset could finally debut this spring

After years of development, Apple’s long-rumored augmented and virtual reality headset is nearly ready. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company plans to announce the device sometime this spring ahead of its annual WWDC conference in June. In …

Apple reportedly cancels development of fourth-generation iPhone SE

Apple has reportedly canceled the development of a new iPhone SE. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, the company recently told suppliers it would not release a fourth-generation SE model sometime in 2024. In a Medium post spotted by MacRumors, Kuo said…