Tech Digest daily roundup: Etsy U-turn over withholding sellers’ money
Online marketplace Etsy has said it will change its policy after sellers complained of money being held. The U-turn comes after the BBC reported that some sellers had 75% of their money frozen for 45 days. Etsy said it was “substantially decreasing” the amount of money it would put on hold but did not state the new rate or time frame. Sellers like Dan, who said Etsy had £7,000 of his takings on hold, said the announcement “lacked detail”. Etsy’s tension with sellers has sparked boycott calls and raised pressure on the company, which on Wednesday reported a decline in profits. BBC
The success of The Super Mario Bros Movie and the new Zelda video game helped to boost Nintendo’s bottom line on Thursday as the Japanese gaming company reported an 82% increase in profits. It said its operating profit in the three months to 30 June rose to 185.4bn yen (£1bn), with the April release of the film – currently the biggest box office hit of 2023 – driving sales of Super Mario titles and the latest Legend of Zelda game also doing well. The Guardian
Amazon unveiled surging sales as Prime members flocked to its website to snap up bargains. The tech giant said its Prime Day sales event over July 11-12 was its largest ever, saving customers $2.5bn (£2bn) on deals. The online retail giant revealed overall sales of $134.4bn, up 11pc, and told Wall Street it expected its near-term revenues and profits to smash expectations. Retail at its bricks-and-mortar shops beat market expectations, as did its online sales. Telegraph
Some iPhone users are being encouraged to upgrade their mobile devices before September, with the iOS 17 update set to cut some models’ value in half. The iPhone 8 and iPhone X, both released in 2017, will not support iOS 17. Tech experts are therefore urging people with these models to sell them or trade them in before the next upgrade. According to research from SellCell, the value of both of these are likely to plummet and leave their owners at risk of a number of security issues. Joe
The iPhone 15 could launch in just six weeks’ time. Sources are telling 9to5Mac that the handset will arrive on 13th September. That’s a Wednesday, which is a break from Apple’s traditional Tuesday launches. But it’s not unheard of – the iPhone 14 launched on 7th September 2022, which was also a Wednesday. Could Wednesday be the new Tuesday? The information isn’t rock solid. Multiple sources have told 9to5Mac that mobile carriers have asked employees not to take holiday on 13th September due to a “major smartphone announcement”. What HiFi
Cleanup costs from a Russian cyber attack wiped £58m from Capita’s value after the incident pushed the outsourcer to a £68m half-year loss. Shares in the London-listed company, which collects the BBC TV licence fee, plunged as much as 16pc on Friday after it said dealing with the March cyber incident will cost up to £25m. The figure represents a 25pc increase on estimated costs previously announced by the company. It came as Capita posted a pre-tax loss of £67.9m for the first six months of the year, compared with a profit of £100,000 a year earlier. Telegraph
Meta’s Twitter rival Threads appears to be struggling to hold on to users as its daily active user count is down by about four-fifth since its launch – just days after it broke records as the fastest-growing app ever. Within a few days of its launch, Instagram’s threads reached 100 million users, making it the most rapidly growing app ever developed. In comparison, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which was the previous fastest-growing app, took two months to reach 100 million users. Independent
