Category: Technology

Meta is preparing for even more layoffs, according to reporting by Bloomberg. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a company memo that he plans on cutting about five percent of its “low-performers.”

“I’ve decided to raise the bar on performance management and move out low-performers faster,” Zuckerberg said in the memo. “We typically manage out people who aren’t meeting expectations over the course of a year, but now we’re going to do more extensive performance-based cuts during this cycle.”

All told, this could result in 10 percent fewer staff at Meta, once attrition is accounted for. Bloomberg suggested that the forthcoming pink slips will focus on people “who have been with the company long enough to receive a performance rating.”

Between increased layoffs and attrition, nearly 7,000 Meta staff might be leaving the company in the near future. This follows a firing spree that began in late 2022, eventually impacting over 20,000 workers. The company also laid off 60 technical program managers earlier this month.

“A leaner org will execute its highest priorities faster. People will be more productive, and their work will be more fun and fulfilling,” Zuckerberg said in 2024. Nothing says “fun and fulfilling” like living in constant fear of being fired.

Meta has had an unusual year so far. We are only halfway through January and the Zuck has already ended third-party fact checking across Meta platforms, appointed UFC CEO Dana White to Meta’s board and took a trip to Mar-a-lago to bend the knee. The company also changed its “Hateful Content” policy to make it safer for homophobes and it came out that Instagram had been shadowbanning common LGBTQ hashtags. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/mark-zuckerberg-plans-to-lay-off-an-additional-five-percent-of-metas-workforce-182651886.html?src=rss 

Substack tested live video last year, allowing Substack Bestsellers (the company’s top users) to stream video and connect with a live audience and even collaborate with other Bestsellers. Now, the feature is open to every Substack publisher who wants to go live. The only primary requirement besides needing an account is having at least 10 free subscribers.

Publishers who go live can read comments as they come in, similar to Twitch. They can also collaborate with other publishers by asking them to hop on a call. Currently, Substack is only supporting up to three people in a single call.

After your stream ends, you get a copy of the VOD and also some AI-generated notes. The VOD can be posted as its own post to ensure readers and fans who missed out can experience the stream on their own time. The VODs are made public by default when shared as a post, but they can also be paywalled. Substack’s AI can generate clips you can share to attract viewers to watch the main VOD if you’re interested in promoting your content elsewhere.

Substack claims that its Bestsellers are happy with the feature, which allows them to engage with their readers and viewers better than before. The full impact of live video on Substack still remains questionable until more publishers try it out. Given how many options there are for streaming live video these days, it’s far from a sure thing it’ll catch on here.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/substack-is-now-letting-all-publishers-broadcast-live-video-165321645.html?src=rss 

The Anker Soundcore Space A40 wireless earphones are now back to their Black Friday and Cyber Monday price, dropping from $80 to $45. These earbuds have made it onto our list of the best budget wireless earbuds and won first place.

This pair of earbuds boasts some great features, such as sound customization using the Soundcore app and multipoint connectivity, which lets them connect to two devices at once. Of course, they have active noise cancellation (ANC) to block out background noises. The ANC is unexpected for headphones at this price range, and it’s adaptive and has adjustable levels.

The sound profile of the Soundcore Space A40 earbuds is warm with a boost in the upper-bass, but the higher frequencies have some cutting, which can reduce the clarity of some finer details. However, the bass profile is still pleasant and not overwhelming like many cheaper earphones have.

The earbuds have a battery life of 10 hours on a full charge, but the case adds 50 hours more, an impressive number. The case also supports wireless charging. The main downside is that quality when using them for voice calls isn’t great, but if you stick to tunes you’ll likely be happy.

Follow @EngadgetDeals on Twitter and subscribe to the Engadget Deals newsletter for the latest tech deals and buying advice.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/our-favorite-budget-wireless-earbuds-are-down-to-a-record-low-price-154206363.html?src=rss 

 Photoshop is officially becoming a team project. Adobe has announced the creation of live co-editing on Photoshop, allowing multiple individuals to simultaneously work on the same file from different computers. If you’re sick of waiting around for a document back then this is probably great news, but, if you’re keen to only share the final product, then you might not want to alert your boss.

Adobe suggests a slew of uses for live co-editing in Photoshop, such as collaborating with other designers, allowing clients to directly edit and comment on a document or having students follow along to a teacher’s lesson. To be fair, my design skills might be better if I had that option during my college Photoshop class. 

The feature isn’t completely finalized, with live co-editing only available in beta testing right now — though the company does offer a similar feature in Adobe Express. You can sign up to be part of the beta testing group here if you want to test it out for yourself. You can also look at competitors like Canva, which already offers real-time collaboration. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/adobe-tests-live-co-editing-on-photoshop-155202670.html?src=rss 

DirecTV just launched its new sports-only streaming service, MySports. The initial launch includes 40 sports from channels like ESPN, Fox Sports, the Golf Channel and more. It also includes sport-specific channels like the MLB Network, the NFL Network and NBA TV. The service will initially be available in 24 metro areas, including New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

It’ll also include local channels owned by ABC, Fox and NBC so that people can watch games exclusively available on those channels. DirecTV will also add more channels to the mix in the future, as it’s currently in talks with CBS to gain access to its content.

A MySports subscription costs $70 a month, but if you sign up right now, you can pay $50 a month for the first three months. This offer lasts until February 25. If you don’t want to commit so soon, there’s also a five-day free trial, Variety notes. A MySports subscription is around $10 cheaper than what competitors like YouTube TV and Fubo offer, priced at $83 and $80 a month, respectively.

You can watch MySports content using the DirecTV app on iOS and Android. It’s also available on smart TV platforms like Fire TV, Android TV and Apple TV.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/directv-is-launching-its-first-sports-only-subscription-144553549.html?src=rss 

Amazon had been planning to roll out a new Alexa powered by generative AI in October 2024, but that obviously didn’t happen. According to reports that came out back then, the company pushed back its new voice assistant’s release to sometime this year. Now, a new report by The Financial Times says the company still needs to be able to overcome “several technical hurdles” before it can launch a more powerful version of Alexa. One of the main problems it has to solve is “hallucinations,” which are incorrect or false results that generative AIs produce at times. 

Hallucinations have to be “close to zero,” Rohit Prasad, leader of Amazon’s artificial general intelligence (AGI) team told FT. Since people tend to use Alexa throughout the day, it could end up spitting out a lot of false information if Amazon fails to address the issue. Prasad admits that hallucinations are “still an open problem in the industry,” but his team is “working extremely hard on it.” Amazon also has to work Alexa’s response speed or latency, because users expect to get a response quickly after they ask the assistant a question or after they ask it to perform a task. 

The Amazon AGI lead said that getting Alexa to that last mile has been really hard. “Sometimes we underestimate how many services are integrated into Alexa, and it’s a massive number,” he told FT. His team has to ensure that the new assistant will be able to work with hundreds of third-party apps and services. The new Alexa is expected to be powered by Anthropic’s Claude AI and the company’s in-house Amazon Nova models, and it will reportedly require a subscription as a way for the company to make money. But it still has no solid release date, and based on what a current employee told the publication, it’s not rolling out anytime soon. Amazon still has a lot of things to do, they said, such as making sure it works “close to 100 percent of the time,” adding child safety filters and testing Alexa various integrations. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/amazons-ai-lead-says-technical-issues-are-holding-back-alexa-ai-150017067.html?src=rss 

Sony has revealed a first proper look at Until Dawn, the movie adaptation of Supermassive’s choose-your-own-adventure horror game. Rather than offering up a teaser or a trailer, the company has opted to unleash more of a vignette, with the film’s writer and director explaining how their project differs from the game.

As mentioned during Sony’s CES 2025 keynote last week, Until Dawn has a new story and different characters from the original work. Director David F. Sandberg (Lights Out, Shazam!) says the film has “sort of the same tone, the same vibe, but it expands on the universe.”

In the game, the characters’ fates are determined by your narrative choices, many of which lead to grisly deaths for them. There will be something similar at play here, as things start over and the characters get to try again after everything goes to hell, Sandberg explained. “Every time they come back to life, it’s like they’re in a new horror genre,” the director added. “To survive, they have to make it until dawn.”

It’s an interesting attempt to replicate the structure of a video game, in which you can just start over if things aren’t going your way. That said, the premise does make Until Dawn sound a little like the very fun Happy Death Day, in which the main character is killed every day but keeps coming back to life until she can figure out the identity of the murderer.

Until Dawn is set to hit theaters on April 25. Sony says a proper trailer is coming soon. In the meantime, you might like to check out the remake of the game, which arrived on PS5 and PC in October.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/tv-movies/sony-offers-a-first-look-at-the-until-dawn-movie-151305432.html?src=rss 

The UK’s Competition and Market’s Authority (CMA) has launched an antitrust investigation into Google’s search services, following similar steps from the likes of Japan, the United States and the European Union. It’s the CMA’s first probe under the UK’s Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers (DMCC) Act, which went into effect on January 1, 2025. The regulatory body previously announced it would launch two separate investigations this month. 

The CMA’s investigation will look at whether Google is hindering outside innovation, giving its own services preference and collecting or using data without users’ consent. “Millions of people and businesses across the UK rely on Google’s search and advertising services – with 90 percent of searches happening on their platform and more than 200,000 UK businesses advertising there,” said Sarah Cardell, Chief Executive of the CMA, in a release. “That’s why it’s so important to ensure these services are delivering good outcomes for people and businesses and that there is a level playing field, especially as AI has the potential to transform search services.” 

The DMCC Act allows the CMA to designate certain companies with “Strategic Market Status” (SMS) around a specific digital activity — in this case Google’s search and search advertising services. The companies must have a global turnover of £25 million or £1 billion in the UK. 

This label allows the CMA to have greater regulatory power over these services and implement pro-competition directives. For example, if the CMA gives Google’s search and search advertising services an SMS designation then it could force the company to make collected data available to competitors or to give publishers greater control over how Google utilizes their data. The investigation can take up to nine months and the CMA is asking for comments until February 3 from interested parties. 

Google has fought previous calls investigations into its search engine. However, in December, the company shared proposed changes to its search services in the US, following the Department of Justice’s call for it to sell off Chrome. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uk-opens-antitrust-investigation-into-googles-search-practices-140002739.html?src=rss