techkard

[techkard]

sergey brin just casually donated $700 million and is still rich enough to buy a small planet.

sergey brin—yes, that google guy—just dropped $700M worth of Alphabet shares like it’s pocket change. not a flex, just philanthropy™️.

and this isn’t even a one-time thing. 💸 $600M in 2023 💸 $100M+ in 2024 💸 and now this like sir, at this point are you trying to un-un-billionaire yourself?

what’s wild is: → we don’t even know where most of it goes → he does it all quietly → and yet he’s still worth $134 billion (yes, with a b.)

meanwhile i’m over here debating if i can afford oat milk this week.

but fr though—it’s kind of refreshing to see some billionaires doing something useful with their unimaginable wealth. Parkinson’s research, undisclosed charities, actual causes. not yachts and social media empires.

tech billionaires really out here playing SimCity with the economy. some build rockets, some build foundations. 🤷‍♀️

[techkard]

🧃 The honey exposé saga continues 🧃

Remember when Honey was the girl of coupon extensions?? like "install honey and you'll never overpay again 😌💅" vibes??

well. six months after being accused of finessing both shoppers and influencers, the fallout is very much still happening. PayPal’s golden child is now down 5 million users. from 20M → 15M. that's not a drop, that's a freefall.

this is your reminder that just because something says it’s helping you save money doesn’t mean it isn’t collecting your soul and selling it to the highest bidder 🫠

capitalism: 1 browser trust: 0

[techkard]

YouTube benefits most when people reduce their Instagram usage.

In List’s experiment, Instagram users who were incentivized to reduce their usage of the app diverted their time to YouTube more than other apps he tracked. The video app saw an 18.9 percent diversion rate, while Snapchat, which the FTC says Instagram directly competes with, sees a 2.2 percent diversion rate. Facebook users incentivized to lower their usage diverted the greatest share of their time to Google Chrome at a rate of 9.3 percent.

[techkard]

📣 PSA for MacBook Shoppers in 2025: Deals are Real, and They’re Spectacular 🍏💻

Apple’s MacBooks are more diverse (and more expensive) than ever — we’re talking everything from a $649 M1 MacBook Air to a $2,499+ M4 Pro MacBook Pro spaceship. 🚀 But here’s the twist: finding good deals is easier than it looks, especially now that Apple has bumped up base RAM across models and cleared out older stock.

So, what’s going on in MacLand? Here's your quick guide to what’s hot, what’s cheap, and what’s quietly disappeared.

💨 M1 MacBook Air: The Budget Champ Lives On

Discontinued by Apple, but Walmart’s still holding the line at $649 (🤯). It’s perfect for light work, students, or anyone who doesn't need a beast.

🛒 $649 at Walmart

🔄 M2 MacBook Air: The Middle Child

Still super slim, still gorgeous, but slowly phasing out. Best Buy’s clearing stock:

16GB RAM / 256GB SSD: $799

8GB RAM / 512GB SSD: $799

Still excellent value, and honestly more than enough laptop for 90% of users.

[techkard]

Facebook and Instagram benefited from India’s TikTok ban.

List uses the “natural experiment” that booted 200 million TikTok users from the app to argue that consumers see it as a fitting substitute for Meta’s apps. Within about two weeks of the ban, he says, Facebook and Instagram saw 20 percent increases in time spent on their apps. This means, according to his analysis, that TikTok should be considered a relevant competitor to Meta.

[techkard]

Zuckerberg Once Floated the Idea of Wiping Everyone’s Facebook Friends List

Imagine opening Facebook one day only to find your entire friends list gone. Sounds like a glitch? Surprisingly, it was once a serious proposal from Mark Zuckerberg himself.

This eye-opening revelation emerged during Meta’s ongoing anti-trust trial in the U.S., which began earlier this week. As part of the proceedings, several internal company emails were made public — one of which unveiled Zuckerberg’s radical 2022 idea to reset Facebook’s social graph entirely.

According to a report by Fortune, Zuckerberg suggested in an email: “Option 1. Double on Friending. One potentially crazy idea is to consider wiping everyone’s graphs and having them start over again.”

The motive? Facebook was losing its grip on younger audiences, who were increasingly migrating to Instagram and other platforms. Zuckerberg’s drastic idea seemed aimed at reigniting user engagement by forcing people to reconnect with friends from scratch, effectively refreshing their social experience on Facebook.

However, not everyone at Meta shared his enthusiasm. Tom Alison, head of Facebook, quickly raised red flags. He cautioned that friending was too integral — not just for Facebook, but also for Instagram’s user dynamics — and such a reset might do more harm than good.

In addition to the “friends list wipe,” Zuckerberg reportedly floated another transformative idea: shifting Facebook from a friend-based model to a follower-based one — similar to Instagram or Twitter. While neither proposal was implemented, the internal discussions reveal Meta’s deep concerns about staying relevant in a rapidly evolving social media landscape.

These revelations come amid Meta’s high-stakes legal battle with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC alleges that Meta has maintained an illegal monopoly by acquiring potential rivals like Instagram and WhatsApp to stifle competition. The outcome of the case could lead to dramatic consequences, including the possible breakup of Meta’s core platforms.

For now, your Facebook friends list remains intact. But behind the scenes, it’s clear that Meta’s leadership has considered some sweeping — and shocking — changes to adapt to a new digital age.

[techkard]

The “Made in America” iPhone ain’t gonna happen.

Three excellent pieces by Mark Gurman, John Gruber, and Ben Thompson recently published that explain why Apple can’t move iPhone production back to the USA. There is no tariff percentage that will result in a US-based “army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones.” As Steve Jobs told President Obama back in 2011, “those jobs aren’t coming back.”

[techkard]

Google lays off hundreds of Android and Pixel employees.

The Information reported the layoffs, which struck the Platforms and Devices team, responsible for Android software, Pixel hardware, and more. They follow a voluntary buyout in January, and in a statement Google blames the move to combine those teams in April 2024:

“Since combining the Platforms and Devices teams last year, we’ve focused on becoming more nimble and operating more effectively and this included making some job reductions in addition to the voluntary exit program that we offered in January.”

Google Lays Off Hundreds of Employees in Android, Pixel Group

[theinformation.com]