Top Tech News Today: TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas Quits, OnePlus V Fold May Launch Soon, Apple Car

TikTok’s chief operating officer (COO) Vanessa Pappas is stepping down from their role after five years at the ByteDance-owned short-video platform. The video-sharing company confirmed the key executive’s departure, the media has reported. According to a report by The Hill, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has announced Pappas’s departure from TikTok, in a company memo. Pappas will now pursue “entrepreneurial passions”.

It should be noted that Pappas was the short-video platform’s most senior executive in the United States and was interim chief before the hiring of the current chief, Shou Zi Chew. As per a report in The New York Times from 2020, Pappas took over TikTok at the “toughest time”.

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Seems like handset maker OnePlus is ready to foray into the foldable category of smartphones, to compete head-on with the much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy Fold 5 which is expected to be unveiled next month in Seoul, South Korea. The OnePlus V Fold is likely to be unveiled in the coming months. OnePlus, at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023, had confirmed that its first foldable phone would be launched in the second half of the year.

Famed tipster Ice Universe has shared information and a picture of the purported OnePlus V Fold on Twitter. He mentioned that the first foldable from OnePlus would be as capable as the Huawei Mate X3. “I’m here to leak some new information, Regarding the first Fold model of OnePlus, its comprehensive competitiveness is very strong, no less than that of Mate X3, especially in terms of sound quality and camera,” Universe tweeted.

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Apple is reportedly engaged in discussions with banks and regulators in India to introduce its credit card, known as the Apple Card. During his visit to India in April, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, met with Sashidhar Jagdishan, the CEO and MD of HDFC Bank, according to reliable sources familiar with the matter, as reported by Moneycontrol. This development occurs at a time when mobile phone payments are gaining popularity, with an increasing number of transactions being conducted through mobile devices. Tech giants like Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung are actively pursuing opportunities in the payment industry and have ambitious plans in the realm of financial services. These companies have already developed payment applications and are determined to make significant progress in this domain.

Additionally, the report says that Apple engaged in discussions with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) regarding the specific details of the Apple Card. However, sources reveal that the regulator has requested Apple to adhere to the standard procedure for co-branded credit cards, without providing any special considerations for the company.

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Nivruti Rai, Intel India’s head has resigned from the company after 29 years, the company has announced. She would be leading the investment promotion body Invest India, the media has reported. Rai started her journey with Intel in 1994 a design engineer. She was Intel India’s head and vice-president of Intel Foundry services.

Rai initially worked with Intel in the United States from 1994 to 2005 and later transitioned to Bengaluru in September 2005, assuming the role of senior director of chipset engineering and intellectual property development. As the largest engineering center for Intel outside of the United States, the company plans to provide further updates regarding the leadership succession plan for Intel India.

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According to an individual familiar with the matter, Twitter has resumed making payments to Google Cloud, a subsidiary of Alphabet, as reported by Bloomberg. The news comes after a recent report by Platformer indicated that Twitter had declined to settle its bills with Google Cloud during contract renewal. Linda Yaccarino, the new CEO of the social media network, played a pivotal role in restoring Twitter’s relationship with Google. As a result, the two companies are now exploring the possibility of a more extensive partnership. This potential collaboration would involve Google increasing its advertising expenditure on Twitter and utilising the social media platform’s data access tool, as revealed by the insider.

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