Ivan Mehta, reporting for Techcrunch:

Italy-based app company Bending Spoons, which owns Evernote and Meetup, is planning to lay off 75% of the staff of file transfer service WeTransfer, TechCrunch has learned. Bending Spoons acquired the Dutch company in July for an undisclosed amount.

The company confirmed the plans for the WeTransfer layoff to TechCrunch. The staff that is being let go will be informed after Bending Spoons goes through local regulations in different countries regarding lay offs. Dutch media reported that WeTransfer has over 350 employees.

WeTransfer was one of my favorite sites since its launch, and they did a great job making quick file-sharing bearable. I had used its premium features extensively during my Filmingo days, but it did feel like it was losing the plot in the last few years.

That said, imagine reading the news that 75% of your company will be let go and whether that includes you will not be known for another few days… I feel for the staff there.

Mike Rockwell, writing about Pavel Durov’s arrest, on his Initial Charge blog:

Why should we allow governments to force companies to moderate the content shared through their services? Why should we be treating speech online any differently than speech spoken in person?

Should restaurants be forced to moderate the speech of their patrons? Should they be forced by their government to install microphones at each table to ensure their customers aren’t sharing misinformation or engaging in illegal activity? Of course not.

Should customers be told that they are only allowed to speak in a restaurant if they do so in code? Of course not.

Mike’s Initial Charge is one of the few personal blogs that I read religious in my Reeder feed, so his restaurant analogy in this article quickly caught my eye. Mike compares governments forcing companies to moderate content shared on their platforms to a scenario where restaurants are forced to moderate what patrons talk about within their premises.

I have very little details about Pavel’s arrest, the charges against him, and what Telegram was actually doing, and thus have very little opinion about the whole thing. However, I paint a different picture of this analogy in my head.

Let’s say a particular restaurant gains popularity for illegal and nefarious activity happening within its premises. The restaurant starts becoming known as the goto place for bad things. Sure, it continues to offer good food and service to everyeone, but more and more bad actors start frequenting the restaurant and the word spreads that if you were looking for [whatever illegal], you’d find it here. Bad actors actively start using the restaurant to carry out their nefarious activities. If one mentions the restaurant’s name, the first thing people think of is not its food or service, but all that goes on otherwise. The government, too, hears about what goes down at the restaurant every day, and hence informs the restaurant owner that they should do something about it. May be the restaurant owner does something, or may be they don’t. But the illegal activities keep thriving, leading to many issues that affect people and corporations outside of the restaurant. In this case, should the government do anything about it?

I don’t think any governmental agency is worries about every messaging app out there. But once it becomes known for a particular kind of thing, they are bound to take actions.

I’ll admit, I don’t know if Telegram was actually resisting any government’s request or it was actively trying to not moderate content on its service. But I do believe that IF that was the case, Pavel’s arrest isn’t surprising. I also do think Free Speech should exist and it’s a critical component of the modern web. But Mike’s restaurant analogy, on its own, doesn’t really fit in a modern society and within the legal & ethical framework of a modern society.

Mark Wilson, writing for TechRadar:

In what could be a disappointment for those hoping for upgrades like a 1-inch sensor, the Action 5 Pro’s key specs appear to be identical to the Action 4. These include a 1/1.3-inch CMOS sensor, f/2.8 aperture and 155-degree field of view.

I’m in the market for an action camera, and want to avoid the GoPro lineup whose development has mostly stagnated in recent times. I already have the Insta360 X3, so the Insta360 Ace Pro seems like a natural buy for me as it would be in the same ecosystem and use the same apps, the DJI Osmo Action 4 is a solid product that has been getting rave reviews from the everyone. If the release is happening soon, I might just wait for the Action 5 Pro instead.

Aditya Kalra, reporting for Reuters:

An investigation by India’s antitrust body has found that Apple exploited its dominant position in the market for app stores on its iOS operating system, engaging “in abusive conduct and practices”, a confidential report seen by Reuters showed.

and

The CCI’s investigations unit, in its 142-page report which is not public but was seen by Reuters, said Apple wields “significant influence” over how digital products and services reach consumers, especially through its iOS platform and App Store.

“Apple App Store is an unavoidable trading partner for app developers, and resultantly, app developers have no choice but to adhere to Apple’s unfair terms, including the mandatory use of Apple’s proprietary billing and payment system,” the CCI unit said in the June 24 report.

Apple has been facing increased scrutiny in recent times in many parts of the world, some of which have forced the company to make important changes to its billing system on the App Store. While I’m off the opinion that Apple’s billing policies are too staunch, they’re in no way a dominant player in the market where Google’s Android and similar billing policies have traditionally held strong ground.

Gravatar Introduces Profiles-as-a-Service and a new REST API

Ronnie Burt, writing on the Gravatar blog:

For two decades, Gravatar has been an unsung hero of the internet, quietly powering billions of avatars across websites like Slack, OpenAI, Atlassian, and more. Today, we are excited to introduce the latest addition to the Gravatar suite of tools: our new REST API. We redesigned the new API from the ground up to make it simpler and more efficient for developers to integrate Gravatar’s globally recognized avatars and profile data into their apps and websites.

and

We’re moving beyond the humble avatar and aiming to be the open platform of choice for publicly sharing all kinds of profile data — bios, interests, preferences, work history, social connections, and more.

Gravatar, owned by Automattic, has been delivering user avatars to websites and apps for a long time now. This new offering seems like a fantastic idea, and I wish more sites and apps start adopting their new API. At least IFTTT should, but may be also Mastodon?

Here’s my new Gravatar page: https://gravatar.com/preshit

Manish Singh, reporting for Techcrunch:

The two firms reached a definitive agreement for the deal on Wednesday evening, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. The deal values MX Player at less than $100 million, far short of the $500 million valuation at which the streamer raised its last capital, the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the companies are yet to publicly comment on the deal, told TechCrunch.

Amazon is acquiring some assets of MX Player, but not the entire firm, which also counts Tencent among its backers.

MX Player has some of the most obscure web-series content that I’ve seen, but also has some good hits like Ek thi Begum, Aani Kay Hava, Pandu, Indori Ishq, etc. From what I’ve seen, MX Player is much more popular in the semi-urban and rural towns than in the metros, so I can see why Amazon was interested in the deal.

IMAX and Miraj Cinemas are Reviving the Iconic IMAX Wadala Theatre in Mumbai; Relaunching it with ‘IMAX with Laser’ System

Miraj Cinemas and the IMAX Corporation this week announced a new partnership that would bring three new ‘IMAX with Laser’ theatres in India.

This deal marks the first-ever collaboration between the two companies and IMAX’s largest expansion in India in five years. Miraj Cinemas will add three new IMAX systems to key locations across India, including one in Mumbai – set to open in 2024 – one in Jaipur, and a third location to be determined at a later date.

As part of this deal, Miraj Cinemas are reviving IMAX Wadala, the first IMAX screen to launch in India, back in 2003.

IMAX Wadala had long been my favorite place to watch English action films, but over time I simply stopped going there. The theatre has seen a lot of neglect in its last years, probably due to its geographic location. It changed ownership multiple times, going into the hands of Anil Ambani-owned BIG Cinemas in late 2000s. BIG Cinemas was acquired by Carnival Cinemas in 2014, which took over its operations and tried to keep it running. However, the screen, the IMAX projectors, and the speakers were ill-maintained and affected the overall movie experience. The theatre ultimately ceased operations in 2023.

I’m excited to see what Miraj Cinemas does with it. I’m yet to watch a film in a theatre equipped with IMAX with Laser system, so I’m definitely looking forward to this launch.

Jagmeet Singh, reporting for TechCrunch:

India’s largest audio and wearables brand boAt is investigating a possible data breach after hackers advertised a cache of alleged customer data online.

A sample of alleged customer data was uploaded on a known cybercrime forum, which includes full names, phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses and order numbers. A portion of the data that TechCrunch reviewed appears genuine based on checks against exposed phone numbers.

The hacker said the breach happened in March, which led to the compromise of the data of more than 7.5 million customers.

7.5 million is a high number, but considering how much data privacy is valued in India, I don’t see this making the news beyond this week.