THE NEWS WRAP: Anonymous social network Secret to close down

Anonymous social network Secret is shutting down due to stiff competition from its more popular rival Yik Yak and many employees leaving the company in the past few months.

TechCrunch first broke the story, reporting that employees would likely receive “modest” severance packages.

Chief executive David Byttow has since confirmed the news in a blog post.

“This has been the hardest decision of my life and one that saddens me deeply,” he says.

“Unfortunately, Secret does not represent the vision I had when starting the company, so I believe it’s the right decision for myself, our investors and our team.”

Secret has been downloaded more than 15 million times since launching last year. The startup has also courted its fair share of controversy over claims the company was encouraging – and failing to stamp out – cyberbullying.

Twitter chief executive confident he’ll retain his job after shocking financial results

Twitter’s chief executive says he’s not worried about his job following the company’s poor financial results, which saw the social media giant’s market value plummet by 20%.

Dick Costolo told Re/code he and the board are “completely in synch” and he is certainly not concerned about the prospect of being sacked.

“I think you have to have thick skin to be the CEO of any company, but this one particularly,” he said.

“You have to be resilient and be mentally tough and focus on what you’re going to focus on.”

Tattooed Apple Watch users say their smartwatches are malfunctioning

The Apple Watch can malfunction on heavily-tattooed skin, according to Reddit users.

One user says they could not figure out why their Apple Watch wasn’t working even though it was “definitely not losing contact with my skin”.

“I was about to give up and call Apple tomorrow when I decided to try holding it against my hand (my left arm is sleeved and where I wear my watch is tattooed as well) and it worked,” Reddit user guinne55fan wrote.

“My hand isn’t tattooed and the Watch stayed unlocked. Once I put it back on the area that is tattooed with black ink the watch would automatically lock again.”

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is down 74.61 points, falling 0.41% to 18,035.53. The Aussie dollar is currently trading at around 80 US cents.

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