DuckDuckGo sees a big increase in search queries, Apple is giving out bonuses to its engineers, and NASA makes history on Christmas Day.
It’s all the tech news that’s all the rage right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It is Friday December 31st and I am your host, Tom Li.
internet search engine DuckDuck Godaily search queries have exceeded 100 million. It has increased by almost 47 percent this year. While Google remains the dominant search engine, many people are experimenting with DuckDuckGo because of its privacy features. According to a report by Spread Privacy, Google tracks users when they use its search engine, while DuckDuckGo does not. Additionally, DuckDuckGo’s Android ecosystem includes “App Tracking” protection, which prevents the use of third-party trackers.
In an effort to retain talent and keep the competition away, Apple Inc. has awarded unusual and significant stock purchase bonuses to some engineers. The surprise bonuses ranged from around $ 50,000 to $ 180,000. According to Bloomberg, several of the engineers received amounts of approximately $ 80,000, $ 100,000 or $ 120,000 in stock. Recently, Meta and Apple waged a war for talent as Meta hired around 100 engineers from Apple in the past few months. However, Apple has also recruited former Meta employees. This competition is most likely due to the fact that the two companies plan to roll out augmented and virtual reality headsets as well as smartwatches in the coming year.
And finally, on Christmas morning, history was written with the James Webb Telescope launched into space. The Webb telescope will be able to scan the deepest abyss of our universe. It also has the ability to prove whether we properly documented the events that took place immediately after the Big Bang. Most importantly, the Webb telescope has a near infrared camera or NIRCam, a primary imager capable of detecting the first stars and galaxies formed. What’s more, according to a CNET article, the telescope’s smooth launch on December 25 could help it stay in orbit for more than a decade.
And now for something a little different. After finding out how much it would cost to repair his Tesla vehicle, a Tesla owner decided the next thing to do was blow up the car out of spite. Tuomas Katainen blew up his 2013 Tesla Model S after learning he would have to pay $ 22,600 for a full battery replacement. His car started showing errors after just 1,000 miles. A repair shop kept the Tesla for a month to tell it the only solution would be to replace the entire battery. So Katainen decides to blow up the car and make an explosion video for YouTube. Numerous cameras were installed to capture the explosions in detail as well as the slow motion.
These are all technological news that are all the rage right now. Hashtag Trending is part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefing or your daily Google Home briefing. Be sure to sign up for our daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters straight to your inbox every day. If you have any suggestion or advice, please message us in the comments or email. Thanks for listening, I’m Tom Li.