TechReview | What's Really Wrong With Twitter & Why Trump Lost in Court

Domain Mondo's weekly review of technology news:

Features •  What's Really Wrong With Twitter and Why Trump Lost at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals: 

•  What's Really Wrong With Twitter $TWTR (NYSE: TWTR):

$TWTR shares declined 16.62% Feb 9-10

Not Enough Americans Can Figure Out Why on Earth Use Twitter | WolfStreet.com: "Twitter now has reported net losses – as accounted for under the required Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) – every year of its existence. Pretty soon it adds up: Over the past four years, those losses amounted to $2.2 billion. One of its own key metrics, monthly average users (MAU), inched up 4% globally to 319 million. But in the US, where election and post-election brouhaha should have boosted the metric, it remained stubbornly flat sequentially, at 67 million and was up only 3% year-over-year." See also Twitter $TWTR Q4 2016 Earnings LIVE Webcast Feb 9 | DomainMondo.com.

Actually, Wolf Street is only partly right. The REAL problem with Twitter is that it is not mobile web friendly. To effectively use Twitter on a mobile device (e.g., smartphone), even just to view the streams of tweets, you have to download and install the Twitter App and then sign-in. Don't believe me? Try going to Twitter.com on your mobile web browser without signing-in to Twitter, and try viewing more than one twitter feed or stream. The problem with Twitter is that it is a media platform, and today, ANY general media platform trying to attract "users"--viewers or consumers of content--that relies solely on an app, and is effectively unusable on the mobile web, is a #FAIL [compare Twitter's mobile web experience to YouTube.com via a mobile web browser].

•  Why Trump Lost at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals:

The U.S. government didn't even try to win:

Ninth Circuit opinion, page 26

There's nothing like coming to Court unprepared. "The Government submitted no evidence to rebut the States' argument."  End of argument. For more, see UPDATE: Ninth Circuit Denies Stay of TRO, State of Washington vs Trump | DomainMondo.com.

Other Tech News:

•  But Trump is getting his share of  'wins'--“We support the Administration’s policies to level the global playing field and make U.S. manufacturing competitive worldwide through new regulatory standards and investment policies.”--Intel CEO Brian Krzanich in an email to Intel employees.--Intel and Trump tout new $7 billion investment to create 10000 jobs | TheHill.com: Intel Corp. announced a $7 billion investment Wednesday [Feb 8, 2017] that the company projects will create 10,000 new jobs. The company will use the $7 billion to complete its Fab 42 factory in Chandler, Arizona, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said at a meeting at the White House with President Trump. Krzanich said the decision to make the announcement with the White House was borne out of Intel’s support for Trump’s economic and trade policies.

•  Net Neutrality: "Republican policymakers generally agree that the current rules' prohibition of blocking, throttling and fast [internet] lanes should stay in place, but they want to vanquish provisions that gave the FCC expanded regulatory power. How they'll go about doing that is still an open question. And Snapchat, like other companies who rely on broadband networks to reach consumers, knows the devil is in the details."--Axios.com

•  Brexit didn't hurt tech investment in the UK: "The report, which was based on data compiled by research firm PitchBook Data, showed that private equity and venture capital firms invested more than 6.7 billion pounds ($8.1 billion) in U.K.-based companies, up from 5.6 billion pounds in 2015. The closest rival [in Europe] was the Netherlands, which pulled in 1.3 billion pounds over 2016."--Bloomberg.com. See also Apple CEO Cook 'optimistic' about UK's future after Brexit: BBC | Reuters.com.

•  Chrome OS + Android Apps: Chromebook Pro: life in beta |TheVerge.com: "... engineers at Google ... have been spending the last six months or so bringing Android apps to Chrome OS. Android phones have a ton of great apps, but their web browsers pale in comparison to what you can get on a Chromebook. And vice versa ..."

10 Tech Quick Takes:

1. Japan's Sharp may break ground on $7 billion U.S. plant in first half: source | Reuters.com
2. Facebook closing 200 Oculus VR Best Buy pop-ups due to poor store performance | BusinessInsider.com
3. Amazon And Google May Face Antitrust Scrutiny Under Trump | Forbes.com
4. Xiaomi reportedly wants to build its own SoCs, break free from Qualcomm | ArsTechnica.com and Xiaomi Goes All-In On Retail to Revive China Smartphone Sales | Bloomberg.com.
5. NSA contractor indicted over mammoth theft of classified data | Reuters.com
6. Hillary Clinton server continues to haunt her | WashingtonTimes.com
7. Exposing The Vulnerability Of Motorola Solutions (NYSE:MSI) | SeekingAlpha.com
8. For Chinese Home Buyers, Seattle Is the New Vancouver | WSJ.com: "Canadian city’s tax-policy changes appear to be driving overseas investors south."
9. The Smartest Ways to Use Your Smartphone in the Car | WSJ.com
10. The End of Employees | WSJ.com

-- John Poole, Editor, Domain Mondo  

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