Facebook rolls out encrypted voice and video calls, Reddit reaches a $10 billion valuation, and fiery power supplies?
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It’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Monday August 16, and I’m your host, Tom Li.
Facebook has finally rolled out end-to-end encryption for voice and video calls for Messenger, a feature that exploded in popularity during the pandemic. Facebook, which has nearly 2.9 billion active users worldwide, already has end-to-end encryption for its text chat in Messenger, although it isn’t enabled by default. In the coming weeks, Facebook will also begin to test end-to-end encrypted group chats and calls in Messenger, as well as opt-in encrypted direct messages in Instagram.
Up next, Reddit claims that it has reached a $10 billion valuation after raising $410 million in its Series E round of funding. The news aggregation site, self-proclaimed as the front page of the internet, saw massive growth in recent years and has been aggressively expanding its presence outside of North America. In March, it hired Andrew Vollero as its first chief financial officer. The company still plans on going public, but hasn’t announced a timeline for that plan.
Taiwanese electronics maker Gigabyte is promising to replace two of its power supply models. This move is responding to a video posted by tech media Gamer Nexus, who demonstrated that the power supplies can burst into flames under specific scenarios. In a public response, Gigabyte wrote that testing at close to a over power protection limit could reduce the lifespan of its power supplies. But Kotaku pointed out that the units used in the Gamer Nexus video would sometimes be dead on arrival prior to any use, or die after just minutes. Nonetheless, Gigabyte said that they’ve fixed the issue and offered an exchange for anyone who has bought an affected unit.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash Briefing or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire Newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Friday at 3 pm. If you have a suggestion or tip, please drop a line to any of our writers in the comments or via email. Thanks for listening, I’m Tom Li.