Today in Big Tech — December 1, 2020

Today is #GivingTuesday. Please remember to do your research before you give. Or, make a point to give your time.

Salesforce acquires Slack for $27.7 billion by Paul Sawers

“Salesforce said that it plans to combine Slack with Salesforce Customer 360, a tool it first introduced back in 2018 that allows companies to connect Salesforce apps, map teams, and reconcile various data sources across an organization, creating what they tout as an ‘operating system for the new way to work.’”

There were a few signals that this deal wouldn’t go through (and it still might not, if regulators decide to stop it). But ultimately, Slack desperately needs a parent company, and Salesforce needs a new vehicle for revenue growth.

AWS brings the Mac mini to its cloud by Frederic Lardinois

“Unsurprisingly, the AWS team is also working on bringing Apple’s new M1 Mac minis into its data centers. The current plan is to roll this out ‘early next year,’ AWS tells me, and definitely within the first half of 2021. Both AWS and Apple believe that the need for Intel-powered machines won’t go away anytime soon, though, especially given that a lot of developers will want to continue to run their tests on Intel machines for the foreseeable future.”

Amazon wants this because it’s happy to add anything that differentiates AWS from Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. Apple wants this because it keeps developers interested in Macs.

Facebook Oversight Board reveals its first cases

“All involve decisions originally made by the platform to remove user content. They include images of female breasts in a post about breast cancer, and an image of a dead child alongside text about whether retaliation was justified against China for its treatment of Uighur Muslims. The board said Facebook users had submitted 20,000 suggested incidents for review since October 2020.”

I don’t think the rulings themselves will be more interesting than how long it takes for the oversight board to deliberate each incident. The length of these first cases will set the pace for how quickly moderation changes at Facebook and its properties, if at all.

Samsung may discontinue high-end Galaxy Note smartphones by Joyce Lee and Heekyong Yang

“At present, the South Korean tech giant does not have plans to develop a new version of the Galaxy Note for 2021, three sources said, declining to be identified as the plans were not public. Instead, the Galaxy S series’ top model, the S21, will have a stylus and the next version of Samsung’s foldable phone will be compatible with a stylus, which will be sold separately, one of the sources said.”

The interesting thing here is that this rumor continues to show up every few months. We even heard about this before the pandemic — Samsung has been considering this long before 2020 disrupted everyone’s roadmaps.

Your next Android smartphone will have even faster 5G, better battery life, thanks to Qualcomm by Shara Tibken

“The chip that will power most high-end 5G phones next year is here: the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. And for the first time in its ultra high-end lineup, Qualcomm has integrated its 5G modem on the same chip as the brains, AI and other processor features, likely giving 5G phones a boost in battery life.”

That headline could be written every year. The real news here is that a separate 5G chip is no longer necessary.