The Morning After: Elon Musk is buying Twitter

This morning’s tech headlines are heavy on Musk. While the SpaceX and Tesla boss is still chasing hyperloop glory, yesterday Twitter accepted Elon Musk’s buyout offer of $44 billion — more than anyone else would have likely paid for the social network.

Musk has already said he’ll take the company private and added he wants to upgrade Twitter by protecting free speech, open-sourcing algorithms, fighting spambots and “authenticating all humans.”

Now, there’s no-one the internet and tech media loves to predict or bet against more than Elon Musk. What’s odd is that Musk laid out his interest in Twitter so explicitly. He tweets so much. He makes headlines, not only in specialist press but across TV networks and major newspapers, with his casual missives running the gamut from typo-riven banter — how I deal with Twitter, to be honest — to angering America’s Securities Exchange Commission and facing repercussions for it.

I’m interested to see how it compares to Jeff Bezos’ purchase of The Washington Post, which now seems like a sensible, innocuous media purchase in comparison. The Amazon founder has been pretty hands-off, as he said he would be.

Bezos paid $250 million for a journalistic institution. Musk is offering up 176 times more for Twitter. How messy could it possibly get?

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

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Maybe some people don’t have phones.

Way back in 2018, Blizzard revealed Diablo: Immortal, a game to fill the gaps of the story between Diablo II and Diablo III. However, the fact it was announced as a mobile-only game didn’t exactly go over well with the publisher’s hardcore fans — to put it mildly. Nearly three and a half years later, there’s a June release date, and Blizzard announced it’ll also be available on PC after all.

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The Boring Company will start one ‘in the coming years,’ he said.

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Elon Musk first started the idea of a high-speed hyperloop transport system between cities back in 2013, but he then left it to other companies. Next, in 2017, he announced he would build a hyperloop system after all, starting with a New York to Washington D.C. route. Now, Musk has tweeted The Boring Company will attempt to build a working hyperloop “in the coming years.” The company hasn’t completed any significant projects, apart from the Las Vegas LVCC Loop with 1.7 miles of tunnels. (It has announced but shelved or canceled several other projects).

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There’s a Lightning Rifle from ‘The Matrix’ and Channing Tatum’s ‘Jupiter Ascending’ ears.

Filmmakers Lana and Lilly Wachowski have announced they’re holding an auction of props from films like The Matrix and Cloud Atlas to raise money for vulnerable trans youth. It comes after a record 238 anti-LGBTQ bills have been proposed in the US this year alone, with roughly half targeting transgender people.

All the money raised will go to the Protect & Defend Trans Youth Fund, which will distribute the funds to organizations in Florida, Arkansas, Tennessee and elsewhere in the US.

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A vlogging workhorse, with some caveats

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Panasonic launched the GH5 over five years ago, powering a vlogging boom and confirming the potential of mirrorless cameras for video. Its replacement has finally come in the form of the $2,200 GH6. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it’s very good. But one area it struggles is crucial: autofocus. The GH6 only has contrast detect autofocus, which, while improved, means it lags behind rival Sony and Canon cameras.

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A hybrid could be available as soon as 2023.

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One of Chevy’s most iconic cars will get the EV treatment. GM has confirmed it’s developing a “fully electric” Corvette, and an “electrified” (read: hybrid) version will be available as soon as 2023. The automaker didn’t provide more details, and even the video attached to the teaser doesn’t offer any clues. A Corvette EV isn’t entirely surprising, mind you. GM plans to exclusively sell EVs by 2035, and the car was only going to survive that transition by being electrified.

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