This week Microsoft takes the FOMO out of WFH, Apple is slowly becoming a bank and Netflix turns on ads. These are the five big stories from the week that was.
1. What the WFH?
Microsoft has unveiled an app that will help those in a hybrid workforce decide when to go into the office. The new Microsoft Places app will let users know when the office is likely to be busy.
The tech giant is also introducing a new premium version of Teams that will generate summaries of meetings, aiming to help workers skip unnecessary meetings.
2. Bank of Apple
Apple has teamed up with Goldman Sachs to launch a high-interest savings account. The new offering will expand the iPhone maker’s finance ambitions and is set to debut in the coming months.
3. Skip the ads
Netflix will charge $6.99 for its new advertising-supported tier, “Basic with ads”. The shift comes after the streaming giant saw its first drop in subscribers in more than a decade this year.
It will include an average of four to five minutes of ads each hour and won’t allow users to download movies or TV shows for offline use.
4. The Flying Kangaroo
Qantas shares flew this week on the back of the airline saying it will return to profit this year, marking a turnaround for the flying kangaroo since the pandemic.
5. New employees
Shares of rideshare companies, Uber, Lyft and Doordash all took a dive this week after the Biden Labor Department proposed new rules that would see gig workers be reclassified as employees.
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