Technology Roundup – Apple launches MacBook Air and Pro, ByteDance asks U.S. court to step in to stop TikTok forced sale

科技精选——苹果推出MacBook Air和Pro,字节跳动要求美国法院介入TikTok强迫出售的交易
Published on: November 10, 2020
Author: Amy Liu

Apple launches MacBook Air and Pro, $699 Mac Mini with in-house silicon as Intel breakup begins

Preorders for the new Macs start today and shipping starts next week.

Update 3: The new M1 MacBook Pro offers 8x the performance and 5x faster graphics compared to the prior model.

Apple says the new MacBook Pro is 3x faster than the best-selling Windows (MSFT -3.3%) laptop in its class.

The Pro offers 17 hours of web battery life and 20 hours of video playback, the longest ever for a MacBook Pro.

The Pro also still includes the active cooling system that was removed from the new Air.

MacBook Pro still starts at $1,299 and $1,199 for Education.

ByteDance asks U.S. court to step in to stop TikTok forced sale

TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance (BDNCE) has asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene to prevent the U.S. government from requiring it to sell the video-sharing app or face a ban in the U.S.

The petition filed late Tuesday says the U.S. government’s decision to force a TikTok deal was “arbitrary and capricious” and denied the company of its due process under the law.

The company says it was in talks with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. to address the Trump administration’s concerns but that feedback essentially stopped in recent weeks, even as a Nov. 12 deadline approached requiring a sale of TikTok.

Under a preliminary deal approved in principle by Pres. Trump in September, Oracle and Walmart would take a combined 20% stake in a new U.S.-based company that would run TikTok.

Among the main sticking points in the negotiations is the size of the stake that ByteDance would get to keep in TikTok, WSJ reports.

Microsoft looks to feed hungry gamer demand, launching next-gen Xboxes

It’s official launch day for Microsoft’s (MSFT -3.5%) next-generation consoles, the Xbox Series X and Series S, and Microsoft has begun a launch stream with extended gameplay sessions on launch titles.

The $499 Series X is “available” today – along with the smaller, discless $299 Series S – but “available” is a term of art, as actually getting hands on the console amid hot demand is challenging.

Preorders began in Sept. 22, to heavy interest, and for the first time the company is launching worldwide on the same day.

That demand could outstrip supply for months, though many COVID-19 supply chain issues in Chinese factories from the first half have resolved somewhat.

And launch day has been hit by demand in another way – Xbox Live is seeing an outage in Core Services, preventing users from signing on, and Microsoft is working on a fix.

Amazon leasing branded trucks to other delivery companies – The Information

The Information sources say Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) will start leasing branded delivery trucks to small trucking companies.

Amazon has previously focused on competing with FedEx, UPS, and the USPS in the last-mile delivery space. But now the e-commerce giant wants in on the middle-mile trucking business.

The leasing program also reportedly includes an in-house driver training program.

Amazon used its trucking services to ship over two-thirds of its freight between U.S. facilities by the end of last year.

Related: In the recent Q3 report, Amazon’s shipment costs were up 46% Y/Y as the company pushed for more control over logistics and shipping.

Amazon shares are currently down 2.7% to $3,057.77, continuing yesterday’s decline for pandemic benefiting stocks after the positive Pfizer vaccine news.

Tencent Music Entertainment EPS beats by $0.01, misses on revenue

Tencent Music Entertainment (NYSE:TME): Q3 Non-GAAP EPADS of $0.12 beats by $0.01; GAAP EPADS of $0.10 beats by $0.01.

Revenue of $1.12B (+23.1% Y/Y) misses by $10M.

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