Early Morning Verizon Outage Hits Millions on US East Coast, Bluesky Gains 700,000 New Users in a Week, VMWare Makes Workstation and Fusion Free for Commercial and Personal Use and Adobe Pledges Not to Train AI with Customer Data
Welcome to Hashtag Trending. I’m your host, Jim Love. Let’s get into it.
Verizon Restores Service After Early Morning Outage Hits Millions on East Coast
Verizon services are mostly restored following a significant network outage that affected millions of users along the East Coast. The disruption, which began around midnight EST, primarily impacted Verizon Fios customers, with widespread reports of fiber optic and 5G Home internet issues.
A Verizon spokesperson confirmed the issue, stating, “A network issue early this morning disrupted service for some Verizon Fiber Optic Service customers in the Northeast for a short period. As soon as the issue was identified, our engineering teams quickly restored the service.”
Outage reports surged to over 40,000 during the peak, with users in major cities including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Alexandria, and Washington reporting connectivity problems. Additional complaints were noted in Richmond, Virginia Beach, and as far as Los Angeles. According to Down Detector, 53% of reports were related to 5G Home internet, 33% to landline services, and 14% to total service blackouts.
To resolve lingering connection issues, Verizon recommends customers reboot their router and reset their ONT battery that provides backup during power outages. Though resolved quickly, this outage follows a similar disruption that affected the region in September 2023.
Bluesky Gains 700,000 New Users in a Week Amid Surge in Demand for Twitter Alternatives
Bluesky, a decentralized social media platform, added 700,000 new users in the past week, bringing its total user base to over 14.5 million. According to Bluesky COO Rose Wang, a “majority” of these new users are from the US, reflecting growing interest in alternatives to X (formerly Twitter).
The platform’s rapid growth follows recent changes on X, including a controversial policy allowing blocked users to still see posts from those who blocked them. This change drove an influx of 500,000 new Bluesky users in one day.
Wang says Bluesky’s recent feature updates, such as pinned posts, video support, and custom feeds, are also making it more competitive with X and other mainstream platforms.
Initially, it was Meta’s Threads that experienced astonishing growth, likely because of it’s association with Facebook and its billions of users. But lately user concerns over Threads engagement bait, moderation, and algorithmic feeds may have pushed some of the Twitter refugees to Bluesky.
Some might see this as a trend towards users seeking platforms that prioritize user control and moderation, or those less associated with polarizing figures or policies.
But Bluesky and another decentralized platform, Mastodon have a long way to go to be serious contenders with X/Twitter or Threads. And even though Bluesky boasts about 14 million registered users and Mastodon claims over 10 million, the number of active monthly users for both is about the same – at approximately 1.5 million.
While X/Twitter won’t disclose it’s number of registered users, and estimates vary widely on monthly users, they have somewhere between 300 million and Elon Musk’s claim of 600 million monthly users. Threads is reported to have reached 275 million monthly users.
But pure numbers are not the only guage. Recently Bluesky and earlier Mastodon were both seen as alternatives by journalists, who for many, provide the core of the real information on X/Twitter. Whether Bluesky can attract and retain that important audience may be a factor in its continued growth.
VMware Makes Workstation and Fusion Free for Commercial and Personal Use
VMware has announced that its VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation desktop hypervisors are now free for all users, including commercial, educational, and personal use. This shift away from the paid subscription model makes it easier for individuals and businesses to access these virtualization tools at no cost.
The Pro versions of VMware Workstation and Fusion, which were previously available through paid licenses, will now include all the features of the former paid offerings but without subscription fees. According to Himanshu Singh, Broadcom’s product marketing director, “You can now utilize these tools without any cost. The paid versions of these offerings are no longer available for purchase.”
While users will have access to full functionality, Broadcom will no longer offer support ticketing for troubleshooting issues. However, Broadcom has committed to ongoing development and timely updates for stability and performance.
Existing commercial contracts will continue until the end of their terms with enterprise-grade support. For new users, VMware Fusion and Workstation can be downloaded from Broadcom’s website after logging into a Broadcom account.
This change comes after Broadcom’s recent acquisition of VMware and follows its decision to discontinue perpetual licensing and the free vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) offering.
Adobe Pledges Not to Train AI with Customer Data Amid Growing Privacy Concerns
Adobe has pledged not to use customer data to train its AI models, a stance aimed at reassuring creative professionals who rely on its tools. The commitment comes as Adobe integrates generative AI features into products like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere Pro under its Firefly brand, which includes models trained only on content Adobe has legal rights to use.
Adobe’s promise contrasts with other AI companies that use publicly scraped data, leading some creators to worry their intellectual property may lose value. Adobe chief strategy officer Scott Belsky told Axios, “You have to be explicit not just about what you are going to do, but what you aren’t going to do,” highlighting the importance of transparency in data use policies.
In early June 2024, Adobe updated its terms of service, which sparked widespread concern among it’s users. The changes appeared to grant Adobe extensive rights to access and use customer content. The company later walked this back and clarified their stance, explicitly stating they will not use customer’s work without explicit consent.
To further support transparency, Adobe allows creators to digitally sign their work and specify if they want it used in AI training.
However, Adobe does use content from its Adobe Stock contributors to train Firefly and provides a “contributor bonus” for such usage. While this move aligns with Adobe’s legal and transparent approach, the company’s adoption of generative AI remains controversial among artists who view the technology as a potential threat to their careers.
And that’s our show for today.
Reach me at editorial@technewsday.ca
I’m your host Jim Love, have a wonderful Wednesday.
