This Week In Tech – Feb 28 2021

This week Australia passes the digital news bill, Fry’s is shutting down, Spotify made a few announcments and, Star launches internationally on Disney Plus. Also, Twitter nakes a couple of feature announcements, US judge approves privacy lawsuit about Facebook facial recconition, there was a Pokemon Presents presentation this week, and the Intesting Things of the Week.

Australia News Law

This week Austrailia passed a law that institues a link tax on tech platforms that requires them to pay news publishers to link tho their content. In the runup Facebook and Google payed news publishers huge sums of money for the ablitiy to link to their content. This breaks the concet of the open web, just read the coverage of this on Techdirt fir a good explaiation of the cituation.

here’s a summary of the whole situation froim Techdirt

Fry’s

On Wefnsday, American electronics retail chan Fry’s announced that they are closing for good. This isn’t suprising for the past few years Fry’s locations have been ghost towns (see this Bitwit video). Due to being forced to switch to a consignment model they have been unable to find suppliers.

Disney+ Star

On Tuesday, Disney Plus launched Star which is where all Hulu and Fox content are going internationally but not in the US. Outside of existing Disney+ markets Star also implements ESPN sports content. I love Star it makes streanubg much easier and I’d think that it makes Disney Plus a more compelling subscription for anyone.

Twitter

Spotify Announcmrnts

On Monday, Sporify made a number of announcements mostly about podcasts. They announced an ad marketplace for ads inserted into podcasts via Megahone and also that they’d be launching paid subscription podcasts in Anchor. But in my eyes the biggest annoucment is Spotify Hi-Fi which adds a lossless streaming for extra cost.

Facebook Lawsuit

Judge approves $650 million Facebook privacy settlement over facial recognition feature (Kim Lyons/The Verge)

Pokemon Presents

On Friday, The Pokemon Company held a Pokemon Presents event to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Pokemon. During the presentation they announced the long-awaited remakes of Diamond and Pearl and a new game Pokemoin Legends: Archeus. Also they gave more details about and the release date for New Pokemon Snap and a few in-game events to celebrate the anniversary. You can read more about it here.

Interesting Things Of The Week

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Update: I just found out that famed Imagineer Joe Rhode joined Virgin Orbit for some reasom.
Former Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde Joins Virgin Galactic Team – Inside The Magic

First Greenwood Media Weekly Update