Tinder has launched a new feature that could bring back memories of dating in the pre-smartphone era. It's a new Fast Chat experience called Blind Date that pairs members before allowing them to view each other's profiles. Tinder says its purpose is to give users a "low-pressure way to put their personality first," since they'll have to rely on conversation to make a first impression. 

The mode, which was perhaps partly inspired by the popularity of Netflix dating show Love is Blind, pairs people up based on their answers to random icebreaker questions, such as "I put ketchup on ____." Participants then enter a timed chat with their only knowledge of each other being their answers to those questions. If they end up matching after the timer runs out, their profiles will be revealed to each other. 

Tinder says members who used Blind Date made 40 percent more matches than those using another Fast Chat feature with visible profiles in an early test. It could be a great way to meet new people a user might have otherwise ignored. But it could also be a brutal experience, as there's also the risk of getting ghosted and rejected once profiles and looks are revealed — users can always choose to get paired with someone new.

The dating app's new Blind Date feature is now available in Explore in the US and will eventually make its way to users around the world. 

Peloton laid off around 2,800 corporate employees as part of its attempt to get past its growth struggles following a meteoric rise to fame in the early days of the pandemic. Some of them are understandably upset and angry, and according to CNBC, some of them have crashed the company's first all-hands meeting meant to introduce the new CEO. 

In addition to letting 20 percent of its workforce go — no instructors were affected by the layoffs — Peloton also replaced its top executive. John Foley, who's also a company co-founder, stepped down and was replaced with former Spotify COO Barry McCarthy. CNBC says both former and current employees fired off angry comments in the meeting's chat section, with one calling the all-hands "awfully tone deaf." 

Another person proclaimed that they're selling all their Peloton apparel to be able to pay their bills. "The company messed up by allowing people who were fired into this chat," said yet another person. The meeting, attended by both Foley and McCarthy, was reportedly cut short.

Peloton was massively popular just over a year ago and even reached a market value of $50 billion in January 2021. Now, it's worth around $8 billion dollars, and bigger companies like Amazon and Nike are reportedly showing interest in acquiring the fitness equipment maker. While Peloton didn't say outright that it was planning to let people go, Foley previously said that the company "need[s] to evaluate [its] organization structure and size of [its] team" to make the business more flexible. That was part of his response to an older CNBC report claiming that the company was halting Bike and Tread production. Foley denied the rumor. 

The former CEO also didn't say whether the calls for him to be ousted were part of the reason he's stepping down. Activist investor Blackwells Capital previously accused him of misleading investors about certain information, among other things that cost the company $40 billion. "I have always thought there has to be a better CEO for Peloton than me," Foley said when McCarthy was formally named as the company's new CEO. McCarthy is expected to use his knowledge of content-driven subscription models to keep Peloton running, but he clearly has to win over his own employees first. 

Almost all of the Starlink internet satellites that a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried beyond the atmosphere on February 3rd won't reach their intended orbit. SpaceX has revealed that a geomagnetic storm that took place a day after the liftoff had a severe impact on the satellites, and up to 40 of them will re-enter or have already entered Earth's atmosphere. United States Geological Survey describes geomagnetic storms as periods of "rapid magnetic field variation" typically caused by a strong surge of solar winds. 

These storms can be damaging to electronics and satellites in orbit. In this particular case, it warmed up the atmosphere and caused atmospheric drag — or the friction acting against the satellites' movement — to increase up to 50 percent higher compared to previous launches. SpaceX explained that its Starlink team tried to save the newly deployed satellites by putting them in safe mode, which adjusts their movement so they'd fly edge on like a sheet of paper, to minimize drag. Unfortunately, the increased drag prevented the satellites from leaving safe mode. 

The deorbiting satellites pose no collision risk, SpaceX said, will completely burn up as they re-enter the atmosphere and will create no orbital debris. No satellite parts are expected to hit the ground. "This unique situation demonstrates the great lengths the Starlink team has gone to ensure the system is on the leading edge of on-orbit debris mitigation," the company wrote in its announcement. 

SpaceX has launched over 2,000 Starlink satellites as of January this year for its first-gen constellation. Launches with Starlink satellites as payload have become a routine for the company, and they'll become even more common if it gets approval to form a second constellation with up to 30,000 satellites meant to provide global internet coverage. 

While Starlink could provide internet connection even to people in far-flung locations, astronomers said megaconstellations have become a worse threat to their studies than urban light pollution. In fact, the International Astronomical Union has just formed the Center for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference. Since the main issue is that telescopes will pick up the light reflected by these satellite constellations, making it difficult to observe the rest of the universe, the center will focus on software and technical mitigation solutions that observatories can implement. SpaceX added "sunshades" to its Starlink satellites in 2020 to make them look less bright. According to Sky & Telescope, they do look fainter now, but they're still visible to telescopes.

Twitter has informed US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) that it's transitioning away from using Mitto AG's services to deliver two-factor authentication codes to its users, according to Bloomberg. Swiss tech firm Mitto is an established provider of automated text messages that some big companies have been using to send out not just 2FA codes, but also sales promotions and appointment reminders. Bloombergreported in December, however, that one of its co-founders operated a secret surveillance operation that helped governments locate users through their phones.

Company COO Ilja Gorelik allegedly sold surveillance technology firms access to Mitto's networks, allowing them to track people using their mobile devices. Those companies, in turn, contracted with government agencies. Mitto told Bloomberg back then that it had no knowledge or involvement in Gorelik's surveillance operation and that it's launching an internal probe to determine if its technology and business had been compromised. The Wyden aide Bloomberg talked to said Twitter cited media reports as a major factor for its decision.

Aside from Twitter, Mitto's clients include Google, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Telegram, TikTok, Tencent and Alibaba. Mitto has reportedly been telling customers that Gorelik is no longer with the firm. Still, the publication says several other clients have cut ties with Mitto since the report came out, though it's unclear if Google and the other well-known tech companies and services that it counts as customers are also parting ways with it. 

Tesla has received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission in November 2021, according to Reuters and CNBC. The automaker has revealed the information in a financial filing, noting that the agency, in particular, is seeking information on its "governance processes around compliance with the SEC settlement, as amended." November's subpoena was issued shortly after company chief Elon Musk asked his followers on Twitter if he should sell 10 percent of his stake in Tesla. The automaker's shares slid sharply following that tweet.

Tesla has been at odds with the SEC for years, starting in 2018 when the agency sued the Elon Musk for tweeting that the company is going private. The agency said that Musk tweeting that Tesla had already secured funding to take the company private constitutes fraud for being a "false and misleading" statement."  

When Tesla settled with the SEC that year, Musk had to agree to have his social network posts containing material information pre-approved by a legal team. Shortly after that, though, he tweeted out previously undisclosed production numbers for 2019 without getting that information reviewed first. The SEC sought to hold him in contempt of their 2018 agreement, and they had to make amendments so that Musk knows exactly what he can and can't tweet out. 

The Tesla chief is known for being a frequent Twitter user. In between memes and random tweets, he uses the platform to share updates and new announcements about his companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. A group of Tesla investors filed a lawsuit in 2019 in an attempt to stop his "unchecked" use of the platform. And just last year, another investor sued Musk and the company, accusing them of violating the SEC agreement. The plaintiff argued that Musk keeps tweeting out "erratic" and unapproved posts, including one in May 2020 wherein he said that Tesla's share price was "too high imo." Musk took several breaks from Twitter over the years, and once even claimed that he deleted his account, but he's still very much active on the platform at the moment. 

On February 9th, the day of its next Unpacked event, Samsung is also rolling out an update that enhances some of the Galaxy Watch 4's and Watch 4 Classic's health and wellness features. While the watches have long been able to perform body composition scans, the update adds insights about those results powered by Chris Hemsworth's app Centr. Their partnership gives Watch 4 owners access to a 30-day free trial to the app, which typically only lasts for seven days. 

Samsung is launching a new interval target feature for runners and cyclists that gives them a way to pre-set the duration and distance they want to cover or the number of sets for their workout, as well. After they input those details, Watch 4 will be able to create a custom training session for them that alternates high-intensity with low-intensity workouts. 

Finally, Samsung is rolling out a new sleep coaching program with the update that will assign users with one of the eight sleep symbol animals representing their sleep type. The program determines their sleep animal by tracking their sleep pattern over seven days and asking them to complete two surveys. It will then guide them through a four-to-five week coaching program with missions, checklists and regular reports to help them improve their sleep quality. To help users get better sleep, going forward, Samsung will also automatically switch off SmartThings-enabled lights once Watch 4 determines that the user is asleep. 

In addition to these health and wellness upgrades, the company is releasing new watch face colors, digital watch faces and band colors, including burgundy and cream. Samsung has also revealed that a future update will allow users to stream YouTube Music over WiFi or LTE on their Watch 4 and that Google Assistant will be available on the devices in the coming months. 

Samsung

NVIDIA's has reportedly abandoned its plans to purchase ARM, the UK-based business that licenses chip technology used in most smartphones. According to The Information, the deal collapsed on Monday, a year and a half after NVIDIA announced that it's purchasing the Softbank-owned chip business for cash and stock then valued at $40 billion. Based on NVIDIA's current stock prices, the deal would've been worth over $60 billion if it had gone through today. 

The planned takeover, however, was met with opposition from the start. ARM customers Qualcomm and Microsoft objected to the deal, raising concerns that NVIDIA might prevent ARM from licensing its chip designs. The massive acquisition, which would've been the largest in the chip sector, was also intensely scrutinized by regulators. UK's Competition & Markets Authority investigated it twice over its impact product prices and quality, as well as on its implications on national security. 

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the purchase over concerns that it would stifle competition for multiple technologies. Previous reports said NVIDIA has been preparing to walk away from the deal since early January, seeing as it has made little progress on convincing regulators to approve the purchase. 

As The New York Times notes, NVIDIA repeatedly told authorities that it will keep ARM's business model and even proposed to set up a separate licensing entity for its chip designs. It also said that it will license any ARM-based IP that it develops to all companies without discrimination. "There is no evidence that a combined NVIDIA and ARM would have either the ability or the incentive to harm competition," its lawyers said in a response to FTC's lawsuit. 

ARM-owner Softbank will get a break fee of up to $1.25 billion as a result of the failed purchase, the sources said. Its Japanese parent company is also expected to take ARM public before the year ends, though it will likely have a tough time matching NVIDIA's offer.

HitPiece may have already shut down its website after several artists spoke up about their work being used without their permission, but the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) isn't letting it off the hook. The organization has sent the attorney representing HitPiece a letter demanding the website and its founders to stop infringing on music IPs, to provide a complete list of site activities and to account for all NFTs that had been auctioned off. It also wants to know how much the website earned. HitPiece founder Rory Felton previously said that artists will get paid for sold digital goods that are associated with them, but the artists who spoke up are skeptical that they'll get anything.

In the letter, the group repeatedly called HitPiece a scam operation designed to exploit fans. RIAA's Chief Legal Officer Ken Doroshow said it used "buzzwords and jargon" to hide the fact that it didn't obtain the rights it needs and to make fans believe they were purchasing an article genuinely associated with an artist. Doroshow added: "While the operators appear to have taken the main HitPiece site offline for now, this move was necessary to ensure a fair accounting for the harm HitPiece and its operators have already done and to ensure that this site or copycats don't simply resume their scams under another name."

Although HitPiece branded itself as a platform for music NFTs, its founders claimed that it didn't actually sell any sound files. The RIAA argues, however, that it still used artists' name, images and copyrighted album art. Further, if it truly didn't sell any sound files, the RIAA says that "likely amounts to yet another form of fraud." 

E-commerce and cloud giant Amazon has been consulting its advisers about the possibility of purchasing Peloton, according to The Wall Street Journal. And it may not be the only bigger company that's eyeing the exercise equipment maker: The Financial Times says Nike is thinking of purchasing it, as well. Neither company has held talks with Peloton yet, and they may end up not making an offer at all.

Peloton became a hit at the beginning of the pandemic, when people were looking for fitness alternatives after their gyms closed due to lockdowns. In fact, it reached a market value of $50 billion in January 2021 — a far cry from its current $8 billion valuation. CNBC reported in January that the company had halted its Bike and Tread production amid slowing demand caused by several factors, including stiffer competition. Company CEO John Foley later denied that Peloton was pausing production in a letter to employees, but he admitted that it's "resetting [its] production levels for sustainable growth."

A few days after that report came out, BuzzFeed News published a story about several workers claiming that the company owes them money over unpaid labor. The workers are accusing Peloton of not paying them for overtime and work accomplished during breaks, as well as of not reimbursing them for company expenses. 

If Amazon truly is thinking of acquiring Peloton, it could use the company to expand its health and wellness offerings and make it easier for customers to get their hands on one of its bikes or treadmills. It certainly has the capacity to ensure delivery delays, like what happened to Peloton last year, don't happen again. As The Journal notes, an acquisition would also give Amazon access to users' data, which would be useful for its future health and wellness projects. 

Peloton hasn't dropped any hint that it's looking for a new owner, but activist investor Blackwells Capital is calling for Foley to be ousted and for the company to start finding a potential buyer. Blackwells accused Foley of making decisions that cost the company $40 billion, including misleading investors about certain information and hiring his wife in an executive role.

Spotify has been removing Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) episodes since Friday, and as of this writing, the service has pulled down a total of 113. When Gizmodo noticed that some of the podcast's episodes could no longer be found, only 70 had disappeared from the platform. Now, based on the website dedicated to monitoring which of the show's episodes aren't available on the service, an additional 40 had been removed. However, the episodes don't seem to be connected with the COVID-19 controversy surrounding the show and the service right now.

Several artists have exited Spotify recently because of Rogan's COVID-19-related episodes. An open letter addressed to the host from doctors and scientists pointed out that he had made several misleading claims about the virus in the past and promoted the use of ivermectin to treat it. They take the most issue with one specific episode in particular: Episode #1757 with guest Dr. Robert Malone, who claimed that people only believe COVID-19 vaccines are effective due to "mass formation psychosis." That episode is still available. 

Spotify doesn't seem to be deleting episodes in order, though the newest one in the bunch is #1458 with actor Chris D’Elia as guest. It's also unclear what policies the episodes broke to warrant being deleted. Spotify head of global communications Dustee Jenkins reportedly told employees on Slack before that a team reviewed multiple controversial JRE episodes and found that they didn't meet the threshold for removal. Jenkins also said that what Spotify hasn't done is share its policies externally, according to a report by The Verge, which also posted a copy of the service's pretty narrow COVID-19 guidelines. 

The company's CEO admitted that its content policy should've been public before now when he reported Spotify's earnings for the fourth quarter of 2021. As for Rogan, he apologized for the backlash and said he'll do his best "best to try to balance out these more controversial viewpoints."