Blue Origin develops tech to make solar panels on the Moon; Twilio lays off another 17 percent

Blue Origin, the aerospace company started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has developed the technologies needed to make solar panels on the Moon, with zero carbon emissions and no water, the company said in a blog post on Friday last. Twilio, yesterday, announced plans to cut another 17 percent of its workforce or roughly 1,500 jobs, CNBC reports. Also in this brief, Apple, earlier today, released an update to the iPhone and iPad’s operating systems to fix a vulnerability that hackers may already have been exploiting. Notes: Apple, earlier today, released an update to the iPhone and iPad’s operating systems to fix a vulnerability that hackers may already have been exploiting, TechCrunch reports. On its security update page, Apple wrote that it “is aware of a report that this issue may have been actively exploited.” Apple credited an anonymous researcher for the discovery, and also thanked Citizen Lab “for their assistance.” Citizen Lab is a digital rights research group at the University of Toronto’s Munk School, known for exposing the abuse of government hacking tools such as those made by Israel’s NSO Group, according to TechCrunch. Meanwhile, Microsoft is allowing more people to test out its ChatGPT-powered update to Bing, with the Windows software maker also working on an iOS version that could arrive within weeks, Apple Insider reports. Twilio, yesterday, announced plans to cut around 17 percent of its workforce or roughly 1,500 jobs, CNBC reported, citing a blog post by the San Francisco-based cloud-based communications software provider. The estimate of 1500 layoffs is based on the 8,992 employees reported as of Sept. 30, 2022, in a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to CNBC. In some fintech news, India’s IT Ministry has lifted its recent ban on seven of the 90 or so lending apps that the government wanted to block over connections to China as well as concerns of predatory lending practices, TechCrunch reports. The seven apps that were removed from the list of banned operators include PayU’s LazyPay, Kissht, KreditBee and Indiabulls’ Home Loans, TechCrunch reports, citing a person familiar with the development. The IT Ministry also lifted the ban on mPokket, Buddy Loan and Faircent, according to a copy of the order seen by TechCrunch. The ban was lifted after the companies showed that they did not have Chinese investors on their cap tables, according to TechCrunch. And finally, some exciting news from Blue Origin, the aerospace company started by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, was shared in a low-key blog post. Over the last two years, the company has assembled a team that developed the technologies needed to make solar panels, wires and the protective cover glass needed for those panels – all with material found in the Lunar regolith, the loose deposits on the surface of the Moon. Further, this team has developed manufacturing processes that involve “zero carbon emissions, no water, and no toxic ingredients or other chemicals,” and therefore with exciting potential to directly benefit the Earth, the company said in the blog post on Feb. 10. Blue Origin is calling the clutch of technologies developed for this purpose, Blue Alchemist.