Outdated scheduling software played a role in Southwest Airlines' wave of delays and cancellations this week, according to COO Andrew Watterson and others. On Wednesday, the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association said it has issued warnings for years about the out-of-date technology but was ignored by company leadership. More: - The harsh winter storms and staff shortages were described as "catalysts" that pushed the airline's antiquated IT infrastructure over the edge.
- The software for tracking pilots' location eventually became overloaded, forcing crews to schedule flights manually or cancel them altogether, according to Captain Mike Santoro, Southwest Airlines Pilots Association VP.
- In a call with employees this week, Watterson said the technology couldn't handle the process of matching up crew members with specific aircraft.
- He described the manual scheduling as "extraordinarily difficult" and a "tedious, long process."
- Southwest crews "would make great progress, and then some other disruption would happen, and it would unravel their work," Watterson said.
Zoom-out: - Since Dec. 22, Southwest has canceled more than 15,700 flights, according to CNN.
- On Wednesday, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg called the situation a "meltdown" of the system.
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Apple supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) said it's now mass producing its most advanced chips in Taiwan. The new 3-nanometer (nm) process technology is expected to be used in Apple's upcoming M2 Pro chips for MacBook Pros and Mac minis. More: - Apple currently uses TSMC's 4-nm process tech for the Phone 14 Pro's A16 Bionic chip.
- It's expected to move to 3-nm chips next year for Macs featuring the M2 Pro and M2 Max chips.
- During a ceremony today, TSMC Chairman Mark Liu said demand for its 3-nanometer chips is "very strong" due to the increase in 5G and high-performance computing products.
- Apple's M3 chip and A17 Bionic for the iPhone 15 are expected to be based on TSMC's enhanced 3nm process, scheduled to start in 2023.
- Meanwhile, TSMC will also produce 3-nm chips at a future plant in Arizona starting in 2026. Apple plans to source some of its chips from TSMC's Arizona factories.
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Twitter was back online Thursday after experiencing a widespread outage the previous night. While Twitter CEO Elon Musk did not directly address the outage, he said in a tweet Wednesday that the platform had rolled out significant changes to its backend server architecture, which should help Twitter "feel faster." More: - The outage began around 7 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday and lasted about five hours.
- During that time, the social network was inaccessible for some users who reported seeing blank pages and error messages, including a "rate-exceeding limit" message, among other issues.
- At its peak, more than 10,000 U.S. users reported disruptions, mostly on Twitter's website, according to Downdetector.
- The outage extended across other countries, including the U.K., Germany, Italy, Canada, and France.
Zoom-out: - In September, Twitter briefly went dark for some users after a heat wave knocked out its data center in Sacramento, California.
- Twitter is shutting down that data center this month, leaving it with only two major data centers globally.
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India will require all mobile device manufacturers to adopt USB-C charging ports by March 2025, Business Standard reports. The directive kicks in three months after the same mandate take effect in the European Union. More: - India's law will align with the global timeline to accommodate the larger supply chain for chargers, according to Rohit Kumar Singh, secretary at the ministry of consumer affairs.
- He noted that India's government would require two common charging port types for both mobile devices and wearable electronics.
- The March 2025 deadline applies to smartphones. Laptop manufacturers will be given until 2026 to adopt the common charger.
Zoom-out: - Under a newly passed law, all smartphones sold in the European Union must also have a USB-C port by Dec. 28, 2024.
- The rule disproportionately affects Apple, which uses the alternative Lightning ports for its iPhones. Nearly all Android phones already have USB-C chargers.
- Apple has already said it will comply with the EU rule. It could potentially introduce a USB-C port in its iPhone 15 models due out in September.
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Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly was among the first Democratic governors to bar the use of TikTok on state-issued devices of some government employees. Wednesday's move follows similar bans by Republican leaders in multiple U.S. states, including Louisiana, on Monday. Congress has also included the same restriction in its $1.7T omnibus spending bill passed last week. More: - TikTok is owned by China-based ByteDance. In a statement, Kelly said that TikTok mines users' data to potentially share with the Communist Party of China (CPC).
- In Kansas, the ban applies to state employees working at executive branch agencies, commissions, and boards. It does not apply to the Kansas Legislature, attorney general, or secretary of state agencies, though Kelly has encouraged them to impose their own bans.
- Meanwhile, Republican leaders in at least 15 other states have banned TikTok on some government devices. Indiana's Attorney General has also sued TikTok, accusing the company of lying about China's access to user data and exposing young people to inappropriate content.
Zoom-out: - Earlier this month, U.S. lawmakers introduced matching bills seeking an outright ban on TikTok in the U.S.
- Supporters of the bills cited similar concerns about data collection and sharing, news censorship, and addiction problems among the app's 138 million+ active users in the U.S.
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Mastodon has turned down multiple investment offers from Silicon Valley private equity firms, according to founder Eugen Rochko. He said the open-source social network wants to maintain its non-profit status. More: - Billed as a Twitter alternative, the decentralized platform grew from 300,000 monthly active users to 2.5 million from October to November.
- The platform's massive growth has led to offers from more than five U.S. investors seeking to pour in "hundreds of thousands of dollars" into Mastodon, Rochko told the Financial Times.
- But he said the network's non-profit status is "untouchable," adding that users are drawn to its independence and locally applied moderation.
- Rochko noted that Mastodon earns more than £28,000 ($33,800) monthly from its 9,200 Patreon subscribers.
Zoom-out: - Mastodon's audience still remains far below that of Twitter, which claims 368 million monthly active users worldwide.
- Earlier this month, new Twitter owner Elon Musk briefly banned links to Mastodon and suspended its account and those of users who tweeted their Mastodon usernames. Musk later called the move a "mistake."
- In response, Rochko called it a "stark reminder that centralized platforms can impose arbitrary and unfair limits on what you can and can't say."
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I'm Kiani from Inside.com, and last week, we asked our Inside Tech community, "Do you prefer Apple or Android?" and received some surprising answers. Here are some highlighted responses we received: - Nick Lee (p/nick-lee | LinkedIn), Coach/Consultant at MyOdisee, wrote, "I really like the freedom to make decisions on Android. There is always more than one option."
- Heidi Roberts (p/zoefish), Comms Digital Development at City of Los Angeles EWDD, also compliments Android, writing, "Love the wild wild west of Android and the shared, open community."
Want your question featured? Ask a question! Join the conversations at Inside.com, and we may shout out your name and business or contact you for more! ⭐️
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- Shipments of desktop discrete GPUs dropped to a 20-year low in Q3 2022, according to Jon Peddie Research data.
- Chinese-language social media platform WeChat has taken steps to bar users from accessing ChatGPT, an interactive text-generating chatbot developed by U.S. company OpenAI.
- Sony is researching the possibility of using wireless technology for its PlayStation VR 2 headset.
- A California law barring automakers from advertising cars as fully autonomous will take effect on Jan. 1.
- Three Founders wished they could invest in fractional shares of real estate while browsing Zillow. So they made Arrived.*
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Vibha Chapparike is a Freelance Writer & Editor at Inside.com. With her post-graduation in Management and Finance completed, Vibha is expanding her knowledge in venture capital, business, startups, and technology. She has had a career in public relations and communications. An ardent reader and writer currently residing in Singapore, you can follow Vibha on Twitter @VChapparike. | |
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