Twitter Testing 280-Character Tweet Limit

From PC Mag: "It's staying," Twitter chief Jack Dorsey said last year of the platform's 140-character limit. Well, it appears the company has had a change of heart, as it's now testing a 280-character limit.

The expanded tweet format is "only available to a small group right now," according to...

Cisco Systems Laying Off 310 Employees at San Jose HQ

From eWeek: Cisco Systems revealed late Sept. 26 that it is trimming about 310 jobs at its sprawling San Jose, Calif. headquarters.

The company employs more than 73,000 employees worldwide, so the layoffs represent less than half of 1 percent of the entire head count.

Cisco, the world's largest...

Amazon’s new Echo Plus doubles as a smart home hub

From The Verge: It’s a day of Echo speakers: Amazon just announced a new Echo Plus speaker, in addition to a second-generation Echo and Echo Connect speaker phone.

The new Echo Plus is set apart, though: its abilities double as a smart home hub, one that connects to various wireless protocols to...

Uber is closing down its car-leasing program

From Recode: Uber, which under new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is trying to pare back its losses, is shuttering its car-leasing program after realizing it was losing 18 times the amount of money per car than it expected to, Recode has confirmed.

The ride-hail company previously expected to lose $500 per...

Google Reportedly Planning to Establish Independent Shopping Unit

From eWeek: Google is reportedly planning to spin off its online shopping services operation into a separate business unit to satisfy European Union regulators' demands that the company level the playing field for rival comparison-shopping sites.

The standalone Google Shopping unit will have to bid...

Netflix Offers its Streaming Tech to Airlines

From PC Mag: Netflix is doing a pretty good job of growing its user base in homes around the world, but apparently that isn't good enough. The streaming service wants to dominate the skies, too. More specifically, Netflix wants you streaming its content during flights.

The problem with streaming...

Vimeo acquires Livestream and launches new streaming platform

From The Verge: Vimeo has added live-streaming tools to its video platform for the first time with the launch of Vimeo Live. Customers will be able to stream live from anywhere, and videos will be automatically archived when the events are finished. Each live stream video will feature a chat sidebar...

Chinese government blocks WhatsApp chat service

From CNET: Chinese authorities have apparently squelched another service -- Facebook's WhatsApp text-messaging service.

The popular app -- more than a billion people use WhatsApp, at least until the China ban -- opens up an encrypted communication channel between two people. That encryption...

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