Cont: Musk buys Twitter II

Andy_Ross said:
Musk was tweeting last week about X taking all online transactions in a few years.
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Problem with that is that Musk's ownership of twitter/x has pushed him over the trust cliff for too many businesses. If they are stopping trusting him with basically a PR vehicle (from their POV) why on earth would they trust him with anything more serious.
 
I have to say I agree with others here expressing doubts that there is any market for an "everything app" in the US. Sure, there are countries where this is a thing. In lots of countries Facebook basically is the entire internet for many people. The common theme with these stories is that a big app can corner the entire internet market in these places where internet use is not very common, but trying to dominate the US and Euro markets where internet use is already common seems a different story.

There's too much history and competition among websites and apps in the US to see how a single app would corner the "everything" market. All the things that would be serviced by the "everything" app can already be accomplished by mature companies (venmo, social media, texting apps, shopping, tv/movies, news sites, etc) and I'm not seeing how combining all these things is something people want or need. I especially don't see how Twitter is particularly well positioned to be the one to do so either. Something like Amazon or Meta seem the more likely candidate to accomplish such a feat, if it's even possible.
 
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Going on his record so far, I'm certain his everything app is as much vapourware and spin as all his other product "announcements" turn out to be. Of course if he can get it hyped up he may be able to turn that vapour into idiots willing to sink more money into X.
 
Darat said:
Going on his record so far, I'm certain his everything app is as much vapourware and spin as all his other product "announcements" turn out to be. Of course if he can get it hyped up he may be able to turn that vapour into idiots willing to sink more money into X.
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I dunno, Musk has been obsessed with this X idea for decades, going back to him trying to sabotage Paypal which would make his fortune. It's probably vaporware, but I'm not so sure Musk realizes that. It seems pretty clear that the thinks this is some great idea based on how long he's been carrying the torch for it.
 
Darat said:
Going on his record so far, I'm certain his everything app is as much vapourware and spin as all his other product "announcements" turn out to be. Of course if he can get it hyped up he may be able to turn that vapour into idiots willing to sink more money into X.
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He's got a lot of software developers when he bought Twitter. Oops.
 
TurkeysGhost said:
Amusing illustration of the "everything app" problem:

https://twitter.com/tallntran/status/1683575113286025216

Currently getting banned from twitter is pretty low stakes unless you have some huge account that's important for whatever reason. If Twitter became some node for everything you do online, getting a suspension becomes more of a problem.
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If Musk things I'm trusting him with things like my savings... he's got another thing coming. I don't even trust PayPal. I use it for transactions on occasion, but I'd never leave any serious money in my account.

This is a bit of a problem with Google and some of the other giant techs. Get banned on one service and you could have your entire account deleted. Thousands of dollars of movies you've bought? Gone. Cloud service account that you depend on for your livelihood? Gone.
 
lobosrul5 said:
If Musk things I'm trusting him with things like my savings... he's got another thing coming. I don't even trust PayPal. I use it for transactions on occasion, but I'd never leave any serious money in my account.

This is a bit of a problem with Google and some of the other giant techs. Get banned on one service and you could have your entire account deleted. Thousands of dollars of movies you've bought? Gone. Cloud service account that you depend on for your livelihood? Gone.
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yeah, kinda weird that Elon's right wing fanbois are cheering this one given the griping about "cancel culture". The more you trust to a single company, the more vulnerable you are to their whims. But, like has been beat to death in the cancel culture thread, these morons don't object to the idea of censorship, they just don't like who is making the judgements. So long as King Musk is passing judgement on what's allowed on the everything app (which apparently includes child porn from right wingers), they're content.

There's already been examples of this, at least, this guy claims a spurious claim of racism towards an Amazon delivery driver left him locked out of all his various Amazon smart-home devices:

Amazon barred a Baltimore, Maryland-based user from its smart home features for a week over an allegation that his doorbell intercom had made a "racist remark" towards a delivery driver.

In an explanation of his experience on Medium, Brandon Jackson, an engineer at Microsoft, who is Black, said no one was home when the alleged slur was made and the incident had led him to question his use of Amazon products.

The tech giant has since restored access to his account, and said in a statement that it was working to prevent similar incidents from happening in future.
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https://www.newsweek.com/amazon-smart-home-brandon-jackson-echo-racial-slur-allegation-1806947
 
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Twitter has officially changed its name and logo in the google app store. If you search for "twitter" there, you will not find it. You will still find "X" at the top of the list, but it kinda feels like when you search for something and you get a few sponsored results before the correct one.

Probably not the best way to onboard new users!
 
I Am The Scum said:
Twitter has officially changed its name and logo in the google app store. If you search for "twitter" there, you will not find it. You will still find "X" at the top of the list, but it kinda feels like when you search for something and you get a few sponsored results before the correct one.

Probably not the best way to onboard new users!
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They need a subtitle;

Formerly somewhat useful app formerly known as Twitter.​
 
lobosrul5 said:
If Musk things I'm trusting him with things like my savings... he's got another thing coming. I don't even trust PayPal. I use it for transactions on occasion, but I'd never leave any serious money in my account.

This is a bit of a problem with Google and some of the other giant techs. Get banned on one service and you could have your entire account deleted. Thousands of dollars of movies you've bought? Gone. Cloud service account that you depend on for your livelihood? Gone.
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Don't use cloud service, don't use Paypal, don't buy entertainment online, loss of google and the like would be a minor inconvenience. Yet somehow I manage to do everything I want to online without trusting any "giant techs" with my personal info beyond name and contact info that is readily available anyway. If it comes down to it I managed just fine before "online" was even a thing and I will continue to do so if ever I find it expedient to stop using the internet. I feel a little sorry for those who grew up so chained to the internet that they would be lost without it.

Oh yeah - never used twitter other than following an occasional link that takes me there.
 
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Steve said:
Don't use cloud service, don't use Paypal, don't buy entertainment online, loss of google and the like would be a minor inconvenience. Yet somehow I manage to do everything I want to online without trusting any "giant techs" with my personal info beyond name and contact info that is readily available anyway. If it comes down to it I managed just fine before "online" was even a thing and I will continue to do so if ever I find it expedient to stop using the internet. I feel a little sorry for those who grew up so chained to the internet that they would be lost without it.

Oh yeah - never used twitter other than following an occasional link that takes me there.
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I guess. Sometimes things become online and leave no alternative. I was at my local commuter rail station waiting for a train and an older lady asked me if there was any way to pay for parking without having a smartphone, and I realized no, there really wasn't. The ticket office by the train station had for many years been closed and it seems the presumption is that everyone has a smartphone to buy parking. At least you can still buy a train ticket in person at the convenience store nearby or pay cash/card to the train attendant on board, but I suspect it will get increasingly more difficult to avoid using online-by-default services. It's a transaction that takes place entirely in meat space (parking your car) that requires the use of a smartphone.
 
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TurkeysGhost said:
I guess. Sometimes things become online and leave no alternative. I was at my local commuter rail station waiting for a train and an older lady asked me if there was any way to pay for parking without having a smartphone, and I realized no, there really wasn't. The ticket office by the train station had for many years been closed and it seems the presumption is that everyone has a smartphone to buy parking. At least you can still buy a train ticket in person at the convenience store nearby or pay cash/card to the train attendant on board, but I suspect it will get increasingly more difficult to avoid using online-by-default services. It's a transaction that takes place entirely in meat space (parking your car) that requires the use of a smartphone.
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One of the advantages of being an old fart is that I will likely be dead before such inconveniences become prevalent.

Living in a relatively small isolated location as I do, the problem you describe will not be encountered here any time soon. Pay parking is quite rare and the few places that do have it require you to deposit coins into a machine :D. And not paying at all is an option - I have never seen, or heard of, anyone actually checking for parking violations.
 
Or the advantage of living in a less tech savvy nation. We have the business by smart phone stuff just coming in and not being eagerly accepted.
If you run a business you still need a physical location and living breathing people to work it.
If not you will not grab a large portion of the business a traditional store does.
 
A minor 'fun' twitter experience today -

I was reading The Guardian regular updates on the Eng v Aus cricket match and there was a link to an action video of a crickety incident earlier in the day. Clicked it, watched the clip, paused it and clicked the 'X' to dismiss it. The X took me to twitter :)
 
quadraginta said:
They aren't necessarily inconveniences for everyone.

I for one think most of them are great.

And I'm an 'old fart', too. I'm kinda glad I've lived long enough to see as many of them as I have.
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Sure some new internet based stuff is great as long as you are careful. Having no option but a smartphone to pay for something as simple as parking is not. Every business should have more than one option for payment.
 
Steve said:
Sure some new internet based stuff is great as long as you are careful. Having no option but a smartphone to pay for something as simple as parking is not. Every business should have more than one option for payment.
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I don't disagree, but it sounds like the issue is the way your jurisdiction chose to implement their payment system.

I've seen more than a few municipalities change from individual coin operated meters (at considerable savings) and they have all had a number of centralized pay stations which take coins, bills, and credit cards. Some (as happened here in Durham) later added an alternative to pay by smartphone app. But it definitely isn't the only available method to pay.
 
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